


Akatsuki, the Haunted Mansion

by Memeke89



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: AU, F/M, Horror, Romance, Supernatural - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-08-07 11:39:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16407794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Memeke89/pseuds/Memeke89
Summary: Kagome gulped and tried to move closer, only to yelp in pain. She glared down at her foot. The severed head had sunk its nasty teeth into the flesh of her heel. The terrible ghost was trying to keep her away from...from…No! Kagome whipped her body around. The thing in the ceiling! “PAPA! PAPAAA!”





	1. Welcome to Akatsuki Mansion

“Kagome, stay outside while Papa works,” Higurashi Hiroki patiently told his five-year-old daughter. The little girl held onto his chilled hand with a grip as strong as zip ties. The sun had drifted behind a plump rain cloud, making the man shudder into his coat. He had tried to get his little girl into her Hello Kitty winter coat, but she was willful, saying that she had to show off her pretty new dress. Now she was glaring at him with a little girl’s concern.

“Papa, don’t go in there. It’s scary. You’ll get hurt, Papa!” Kagome sniffled, peering up at her father with gleaming brown irises. She added a dash more to her pouting routine, twisting his heart into a knot. Hiroki bit his lip, seeing the outline of his wife in the girl before him. They both knew how to push his buttons while sweetly puppeteering him into doing what they desired. Hiroki couldn’t count how many tea parties little Kagome lured him into. He could taste the English Breakfast tea now, dancing along his taste buds. The man shook his head and bent down to Kagome’s eye level. She blinked, let go of his left hand, and fisted her purple dress in both hands.

“Papa has to go inside the mansion, Pumpkin. You know that’s his job. He needs to appraise, er, look at the property and report back to his company. That’s how Papa works.” Hiroki passed a hand along the back of his skull, ruffling the light black hair at the nape of his neck. To tell the truth, he didn’t really want to go in, either. The mansion was massive and had been abandoned for the past thirty years. The wood porch landing sat lazily in front of them. It was solid and well built, but there were signs of foundational rot. Not as much as he would expect from a place that no one had visited in years. Not even vandals. The large maple trees that spread along the property had been stripped of their leaves thanks to a frigid Fall. If Hiroki let his imagination run, the trees were bent hands thrust from the dried earth like some demented, dead forest. And don’t even mention the mansion itself or the rumors that clouded the vast structure in the sinews of mystery. Hiroki shook his head. Of course he had to go and spook himself. He needed to set an example for Kagome.

“Papa wishes Mama or Grandpa could have picked you up from kindergarten today,” Hiroki sighed.

“But they’re at the hospital.” Kagome grinned and raised her hands like she won a particularly difficult game show. She then blinked and sobered. “Grandpa is going to be okay, right Papa?”

“He will. A little fall at the front stairs won’t get rid of that old man that easily.” Hiroki chuckled and then stood up. He couldn’t put this off any longer. The man grabbed a purple pen from his breast pocket and pulled out the notepad from his loose jeans pocket. He flipped to the page labeled ‘Haunted Mansion.’ He’d have to mark that out for his official report. “Okay. Be a good girl and play with your GameBoy. I’ll be back soon.” Hiroki kissed Kagome on the top of her fluffy head, walked up to the front entrance to the gaping maw of the mansion, and entered. He didn’t look back.

Kagome whimpered when she saw the mansion eat her Papa. To keep her mind off her Papa being in the stomach of a monstrous beast, she grabbed her puffy pink winter coat, put it on to stave off the biting cold, and took out her thick GameBoy. With numb fingers, she turned on the device and the familiar trills of Pokémon Red greeted her ears. The girl happily collected a few Pidgies with the help of Squirtle until she could no longer ignore the feeling of dread trickling down her spine vertebrae after vertebrae. Her breathed clouded the screen, and it wasn’t due to the cold. The girl dropped her expensive toy.

“Papa,” Kagome moaned. Something was wrong. She just knew it. Exactly like those other times. Kagome couldn’t explain it, and whenever she properly attempted to tell her parents what she felt, they equated her tales as imaginings from a vivid fiver-year-old’s imagination. Kagome saw things. Lots of things. And right now, she could see a decapitated head rolling into where her Papa had just entered.

The head must have belonged to a handsome man at one point. His almond gray eyes were sharp and engaging, framing a strong nose and luscious, full lips. His black hair was pulled into a top knot with a white strip of cloth. But now, he was just a head with a meaty stump of a neck. When Kagome would look back at this moment of time, she would think about how many times it took for the poor man to be separated from his body. Twenty, maybe thirty chops with a blunt knife or axe? The sloppy slash marks left shreds of flesh hanging from the head, and as he rolled, a slimy trail of blood marked his passage.

“Oh!” Kagome almost yelped. She slapped her hands over her mouth and shook her head vigorously. She learned early on that letting the things know that she knew of their presence meant they would come after her, she would react, and then the grown ups would chastise. The girl took a deep breath and gripped her tiny fingers. That was it. If the Rolling Head Man was here, then that meant there were others, and her Papa was in trouble. Kagome would have to save him.

Trembling, the girl followed the wet trail of blood up to the entrance and into the mansion. Tears creased her eyes, and she forced herself to clear the wetness away. Kagome knew she would have to be a brave girl to save Papa. Besides, she had a strict no crying rule. The head kept rolling along in front of her. _Crinkle, slap, brrrr. Crinkle, slap, brrrr_. From hair, to the stump, to flesh. As soon as the girl crossed the threshold, she felt trapped. The mansion wanted her. It sniffed at her aura like a salivating cat batting at a mouse. Yet Kagome couldn’t hesitate. The blood trail was already drying to black, clotted chunks that soon became dust blown away by an ethereal wind. The girl flipped off her purple buckled shoes, she was still polite after all, and followed the rolling, rotting head.

Papa told her that this mansion had been abandoned for thirty years. He refused to tell her about why people were scared of the mansion, but she had an idea. Kindergarteners were just as much gossips as their parents. According to her friend Ami, a really rich man used to live here. He wasn’t very nice, and was mean to his servants. Still, people came to him because he had money and power. One night, he threw a massive get-together to celebrate something. Ami didn’t know that part. She only told Kagome about how the next night, everyone who came to the party died. And they all died in different ways Ami couldn’t even begin to say.

And now Kagome was in the mansion where that all happened.

Wearily, Kagome observed where she was gingerly walking. She was down the hallway that faced the inner courtyard. Everything was bare and cleared of all colors except Gary and black. Along the walls were molding paintings and a few portraits. The faces within the frames were marked out as if a toddler took a black marker and scrubbed away. _Crinkle, slap, brrrr_. A chill from the outside slipped around Kagome like and noose, and her attention returned to where she was going. The rolling head had stopped. She almost toppled over the thing, staggered, and regained her balance. That’s when the head, on the stalk of its ruined neck, slowly turned around. _Tuuuuuuuuuuurned_. Kagome lifted her hand to her face, biting the meat of her palm. She wouldn’t react. She would not react. She had to save Papa! _Tuuuuuuuuuurned_ , until the head faced her. He blinked. The right eye, and then the left. His gaze focused, starting at Kagome’s tiny feet covered with ivory tights, up her legs, torso, and then her widening eyes.

The head opened its mouth.

A thick roach with scrambling legs scuttled out of the mouth cavity, plopping to the floor and scrambling away. Kagome’s heart twisted, but she stayed. The head wanted something, and for some reason, she felt like he was trying to help. She just knew.

“Huuuuuuu,” the head tried. His jaw gaped a seething hole of decay, the word garbled and yet at last understood. “Huuuuuuurrrrryyyy.” The head’s gray eyes darted to indicate behind him. What was behind him?

“A room,” Kagome whispered.

“Yoooouuur,” the head gasped for non existent breathe, “Paaaaaapaaaaaaa!!!!” It screeched, the pitch so intense it would have quickened the heart of any stoic non-believer of ghosts.

Kagome needed nothing further. She gave the head a short bow, and without hesitation, ran into the room behind the creature. The floor boards squelched underfoot, but she ignored the soft texture. Ahead in the darkened, square room was her Papa. He had dropped his pad of paper and pen, transfixed on a spot of cracked ebony wood in the furthest corner of the room’s ceiling. He looked so small in his button down white shirt and baggy jeans. His hazel normally vibrant hazel eyes were blank and empty.

“PAPA!” Kagome wailed. Her father either didn’t listen to his daughter’s pleas or couldn’t hear her at all. Kagome thought, took off her pink Hello Kitty coat, and threw the item as hard as she could. She knew, even with her five-year-old’s strength, that coat should have hit him. He was close enough. But the coat fell limply to the ground at his feet six inches away like it hit a brick wall. Kagome gulped and tried to move closer, only to yelp in pain. She glared down at her foot. The severed head had sunk its nasty teeth into the flesh of her heel. The terrible head was trying to keep her away from…Kagome whipped her head around. The thing in the ceiling! “PAPA! PAPAAA!”

Hiroki stared at the darkening spot in the ceiling, his mouth open in hypnotized shock. The spot increased, eating at the still glossy wood and spreading down the wall in streaks. No. Not streaks. Long, wavy black hair sprouting from the wall, twisted and knotted. A twitching head emerged next. A long, segmented arm with its mottled white skin barley hanging onto the bone. Another arm just as ugly.

“PAPA! PAPA! PAPA!”

A torso emerged, caved in with a rib cage cracked and filled with sludge dripping onto the floor below. A pelvis. Too long legs. The things slipped from the the ebony spot like it was birthed from Hell itself. It hung onto the wall like a demented spider accompanied by a harsh clicking. The creature twisted its head around and around as if its tendons and muscles had long ago slithered away. With a creaking bellow, the creature crawled down the wall, twitching and creaking as if in the throws of a seizure. It scuttled its descent to the mushy floor and crab crawled over to Hiroki’s feet.

Kagome kicked the biting head from her heel, wincing as its teeth left a bloody mark on her tights, and dashed over to her father even though it was already far too late. The thing had pulled its nasty body up to her father’s torso, and Papa was doing nothing. Nothing at all! With unnatural speed, the creature moved up again, this time face to face with Higurashi Hiroki. Kagome could see the thing much better now. Two black holes for eyes. Slits for a nose. Spiders spilling from every opening. The girl screamed when the creature let its jaw fall open, its black tongue slopping to the floor, and like a snake, covered Papa’s mouth with its own.

“NOOO!” Kagome moved again, but a softly glowing hand blocked her. Startled, Kagome couldn’t help but look up. A man. A very handsome one with series golden eyes and long, braided silver hair stood before her. The man wasn’t paying attention to her as he watched Papa’s plight. He looked wrong in a smart business suit, or maybe the suit just marred his beautiful features. A strangled cry regained Kagome’s attention. Her Papa!

“Do not look. Turn back,” The glowing man said in a low, calculated voice. His words were cold, chilling Kagome to her core. He was as dead as the spider creature.

“But Papa,” Kagome wailed.

“You will die, too, if you stay. That thing before us should not be fed. Your father was a fool to trespass.”

“Was!?” Kagome yelled. “He is NOT a fool. He DIDN’T tres, trespass!” She tried to look beyond the beautiful man’s glowing shoulder, but couldn’t see a thing. But…but she could still hear everything. Crunching. Slurping. Gagging. She was going to be sick.

“Come.” The ghost moved away from the scene, finally allowing the girl a full glimpse of him before he forcibly turned the girl around. She dug in her heels as her mouth went dry from the brief sight of him.

“No!”

The almost beautiful ghost simply picked her up in too solid arms. The head down below began to roll away. Kagome wriggled and thrashed with every bit of energy she could muster, and still she couldn’t escape. In her tantrum, she accidentally threw herself over the almost beautiful ghost’s shoulder and saw Papa’s fate. The spider creature’s mouth was unhinged with its jaw touching the floor. In the thing’s mouth were Papa’s still legs and feet covered by black socks. No struggle. Silent, and alone. The thing closed rotting lips around Papa’s feet and swallowed with an audible gulp.

Kagome forgot about her rule to never cry.

  
~~**Welcome to Akatsuki Mansion** ~~

 


	2. A Creeping Feeling

**20 Years Later**

Sunlight somehow managed to slip in-between the panels that should have blacked out Kagome's tiny bedroom. She groaned and turned in her bed, covering herself with the orange comforter her mother bought as a housewarming gift. It turns out that orange isn't the best color to be used for blocking out sunlight. A persistently pleasant light beamed through the orange and flashed happily before her eyelids. Kagome hissed out a growl and threw the covers off. A foreign chill bubbled around her shoulders.

All at once, the light from the cheery window left.

"Dammit," Kagome gasped. From her bed, slowly, carefully, Higurashi Kagome let her brown eyes drift to her peripherals. The same chill from before deepened into her skin like a stern grip. She could make out a tall, blurred figure standing in front of the window. A soft glow accompanied the figure's outline made more apparent by the natural sunlight framing it. A suit. Long, silver hair. A hole where the man's stomach should have been, oozing mush and intestines. Kagome swung around, holding up her prayer beads. "Spirit, be—" But the ghost was gone.

"Freaking ghosts." Kagome fell onto her back, steadied her galloping heartbeat, and wiped her brow from sweat. The woman got up from her bed and stretched. Now that ghost seemed familiar, like something she had long put away into a toy box as a child and she had just now unearthed. But that was how it was with most of the ghosts she saw. Kagome clutched the smooth, purple beads she had wrapped around her right wrist to her chest, took a deep breath, and let it out in a steady current. All better.

Kagome took off her furry slippers shaped like dogs and placed them under the bed, failing to see them get dragged under. She then groggily walked to her bathroom to shower, brush her teeth, and get dressed. She came out, clean and ready to grab a snack from the local bakery to start her day. Now in her warm turtleneck sweater and tight jeans, Kagome left her tiny house. Her tiny, new, house built just a year ago. She said good-bye to Papa and Grandpa in their own respective shrines and just looking at their faded pictures made hear her mother's voice like it was being broadcasted in surround sound.

_"You didn't remember a thing. The police found you curled up into your Hello Kitty coat in front of that horrid mansion. You were holding Papa's pen and notepad."_

_"Was there anyone with me, Mama?"_

_"No. Hiroki wasn't there, and no one was in the mansion."_

And that was where Kagome usually left the line of questioning. Making her mother recall that terrible night was already pushing it. Instead, Kagome inwardly wondered why the police let her keep the notepad and the message hastily penned inside by her father's hand. She also wondered why she had been sleeping outside of the mansion. What could have happened to Papa? And how many chops did it take to decapitate that rolling head? When she forced herself to think any harder on the events that transpired after finding the Rolling Head Man, the memory came out…melty. All she could recall was a pair of sharp, golden eyes and long, silver hair.

That was something she'd come back to later. She had a duty to go back to Akatsuki Mansion one day. Just not now.

Kagome exited her house, immediately feeling the bite of cold collapse around her. Just normal, Fall chill. That was all. There was a black spider with abnormally long legs traveling down Kagome's front door. A brief flash of feet clothed with black socks and a pale white hand blurred in her vision before she shook her head and shouldered her messenger bag. She didn't have to work today, but that didn't mean there weren't events going on and tasks to complete. Kagome left the spider to its machinations, and crunched through the red, orange, and yellow leaves.

As she passed her neighbors still asleep in their wooden houses with leftover Halloween stickers on their windows, Kagome let the calming scents of the world soothe her. Wet dirt from the light rain last night. The decomposition of the leaves rejoining the earth. Perfume from persistent flowers that refused to leave this world. And…and lavender? Kagome held the bag of her strap in both hands, feeling the beads on her right arm tighten. She bit her lip, tearing some of the dead skin off with her teeth.

"I know you're there," Kagome said from the corner of her mouth. A few pedestrians on the other side of the street exchanged confused looks and then hurried away. "Come on. I already look enough like a unhinged woman as it is." Her eyes darted from street, to sidewalk, to the park next to her. Her last option was to look down.

A man peeled off from Kagome's shadow. She held her bag strap so tight that she cracked her knuckles. At first, the man's skin was mottled gray, torn, and shrunken to his bones. She saw thinning black hair floating to the ground, and a death face grinning at her from empty sockets. Kagome blinked, and the image was gone. Now there was a smart young man with healthy ebony hair, clean peach skin, and comfortable (although out of fashion) clothes. He wore this hair in a low ponytail, and his intelligent blue eyes flashed in mischief. This ghost was, as fate would so have it, one of her best friends.

"Ah, I see that you found the rosary where I told you it would be?" The ghost named Miroku asked. He fell into step with Kagome, walking side by side with her even though he didn't have to. He could have floated or rode on her shoulders or hung onto her soul. Something ghostly. Miroku didn't work like most ghosts, and he really didn't like acting like one.

"Yeah," Kagome replied glumly.

"Why the sour response, dear Kagome?" Miroku straightened his shirt from a wrinkle only for said crease to pop right back. Kagome never knew if that was a ghost thing, or a Miroku one.

"Yeah, I found it where you told me you would alright." She rolled her eyes. A black cat sauntered by them, did a double take at the ghost walking serenely next to Kagome, and then scampered off over a fence. Miroku chuckled.

"And my sweet Kimiko kept the rosary all this time for the love of me." Miroku brought his left hand to his chest as if his heart still beat and could still love from the grave.

"When I told her that you were my recently deceased grandfather, she nearly threw me out."

"Er."

"But then she changed her mind, served me some tea, said to me that you ruined her life, and then told me to-and I quote-keep the damn prayer beads so she could at last be rid of that deceitful liar." It took everything she had not to turn and start poking him in the chest. "Good thing you really aren't my grandfather or else I'd have half uncles and aunts running around everywhere. And don't get me started on cousins!"

"Ah, well." He decided that the sky was mighty interesting and stared up at the greasy blue and white clouds floating over the watery sun.

" _Ah, well_ , nothing. Miroku, what did you do to that poor woman?" The sky was apparently still too interesting. "Miroku," Kagome warned. The ghost sighed as hard as any living human could.

"I left those beads with Kimiko as a promise to come back to her. She did say she would be my wife and have my children."

"Uh huh, and how many other girls did you tell that to?"

"Umm."

Kagome shook her head.

"I don't see how you can recall all your devious encounters with women, but whenever I ask you about how you died."

"It's a blank." Miroku turned just enough to allow Kagome a glimpse of his right arm. Moreso, where his right arm should have been. Despite his stubbornness in attempting to be perceived as alive and as a human, no matter what, he was simply unable to cover his severed right arm still dripping a torrent of ruby red blood. The blood soaked his entire right side, permanently staining his gray shirt. He always left of path of red in his wake. "I guess those girls left a better impression on me."

"Well, whatever." Kagome could never stay mad at Miroku for too long. He was a lady's man, but that wasn't what defined him. On top of being a nice ghost with memory loss, he was also sweet, kind, and cared about the part time job Kagome did. Speaking of which. "Do you have any leads?" Miroku made as if to speak when Kagome held up a finger. They were in front of her favorite bakery shop, Hansel and Gretal, misspelling intentional. The shop was constructed to resemble a cabin with plastic pieces of candy and baked goods stuck on the side. "I'm going inside the shop now. I can't talk back in there, remember?"

"Yes, ma'am." Miroku saluted with his left hand and grinned. The ghost waited until Kagome had passed through the bread line with silver tongs flashing, grabbing red bean donuts, ordered a sweet potato latte, and sat down with her quarry. He sat down with her at the round table. "All has been quiet for the past couple of days." He watched as Kagome ate her donuts, thinking over what he said. The murmuring of the shop's patrons soothed Kagome, but Miroku's news had her concerned and on edge.

"I'm concerned," Miroku echoed Kagome's thoughts. "It's the end of Fall, the time of death and loss. Remember last year? You saved eleven living people, banished a ghost, and brought the other two to their salvation." Kagome sipped her latte and blushed. Miroku pointed at her and smiled. "In just a week, too!" He sobered and stared at his left palm. "But now, there's just nothing. Something is going on, and that something is bad."

Kagome agreed. There had been a disturbing decrease in ghostly activity lately. This never, ever happened. People died every day, and Kagome was able to see those deaths. Some glimmered and faded away gently into whatever came next. Others writhed and boiled angrily into the air. The ghosts she dealt with were the ones that couldn't let this life go, or worse, they were stuck here.

As if on cue, a woman sauntered into the bakery shop, her arrival announced by the bell at the top of the entrance door. She wore a business suit and her waist length brown-black hair was up in a high pony tail. Her long legs brought her over to the aisle containing sweet breads filled with cream. She selected three and then purchased a Diet Coke. The woman sat down in the corner of the shop to better people watch from the window and type something on her laptop.

"Oh, dear Sango! What a pleasant surprise," Miroku sighed. His voice became low and raspy like that of a man in love. Kagome raised an eyebrow. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that her ghostly friend had a crush. Actually, scrap that. She knew for certain that Miroku would have given Sango a handful of prayer beads to remember him by and more. Kagome focused harder on the final few bites of her doughnut.

"Are you ever going to tell her about…you know?" Miroku whispered.

The _you know_ was currently clamped onto Sango's shoulders. Kagome winced as she gave Sango the once over. To any normal person, Sango was just a pretty woman with impeccable makeup and a fierce determination not to look over at where Kagome sat. To Kagome, Sango was all that plus a ghost attached to her like there was such as thing as supernatural super glue. The ghost was skinny and dried like a raisin with his hair barely staying on its caved in head. He grasped Sango's shoulders like some deformed monkey, glaring at Kagome with glowing brown eyes that resembled Sango's.

When Kagome and Sango had been talking, Kagome actually did bring up the _you know_. That was when Sango told her that her brother Kohaku had died at the age of thirteen in his sleep with no apparent cause or reason. He just died, and that was that. Then Sango told Kagome not to talk to her for a while because she couldn't believe that Kagome would make fun of her pain like that, or something to the tune of that. That talk was a couple weeks ago. Kagome had no doubt that Sango would cool off at some point. Everyone had a different reaction to Kagome bringing up the raw wounds of death, and she imagined the sudden unexplained death of Sango's brother was still a very confusing and painful topic. It was fine for now, although Kagome did miss her friend of three years.

“She is very lovely," Miroku said like a swooning teenager. He leaned on his hand, staring intently at the busily typing woman. He glanced at Kagome and caught her 'I'm tired of your crap' face. He grinned. "Alright. Alright. I'll…" Miroku stopped in mid sentence. His hand fell to the table.

"Miroku," Kagome risked mumbling. The ghost's handsome blue eyes shook and then rolled to the back of his head. "Miroku?!" Kagome gasped. A hissing sound, like that of a cat's wail, startled Kagome. She turned in the direction of Sango's seat. The ghost of Kohaku was flickering in and out like a lost signal. He hissed and growled. Kagome looked back at Miroku. He had turned back into the ghost she found him as ten years ago, dead and gray and rotting. In tandem, Miroku and Kohaku pointed with broken fingers up above at the corner where Sango sat. The tables began to shake. Bags of bakery items tumbled to the floor. A child began to sob. Kagome could barely hear the restaurant manager yell out that there was an earthquake and to hide under the tables. She could only see the thing that had festered in the corner.

" _Iiiiittttt'ssss watcccchiiiiingggggg yooooouuuuu_!" Miroku and Kohaku's voices rang from closed throats.

Kagome stood, gaping as filaments of impossibly long, black hair pooled from the corner. One single eyeball with three black pupils rolling around in a malignant orbit. And somehow, somehow she knew that the thing was smiling at her.

~~**A Creeping Feeling** ~~


	3. No Stomach for It

**50 Years Ago**

Sesshoumaru observed the hole that had punctured straight through his stomach. He assumed that if someone were to see him straight on, that someone would see through that hole to the other side of the mansion. The hole refused to knit closed. Of course it wouldn't right when he needed his demonic powers of healing the most. He knew that holding his stomach to conceal the hot, still beating innards inside was a lost cause, and yet he did so anyway. Blood squished between his long, delicate fingers and to the floor. The stench of his own guts was unappealing to say the least. The demon staggered, his shoulder smacking onto the wall next to him, and he used the wall as a crutch as he wobbled forward as refinely as he could. Perhaps he could witness what happened to the others of he kept going. Not that he cared. He merely wanted to be aware of the extent of the damage that, that…

A room loomed before him, bright and dark at the same time. Sesshoumaru forced his feet to take one step. Another. Another. His normally impeccable vision became blurry and dark. He could taste the iron of his own blood coat his mouth. How disgraceful. Then again, he failed to foresee the outcome of this night. Maybe he deserved to be disgraced. The room beyond came into focus after a few dozen blinks. A man, Sesshoumaru knew this man, hung on a noose in the middle of the room. The floor lights flickered, and each time the lights went out, a distant screaming bellowed somewhere outside. This was the man who invited Sesshoumaru to Akatsuki Mansion, and now he swayed left to right to left— _creeeak, creeaaak, creeeeak_ , cr—The hung man stopped moving, eerily tilted to the left. It was then that Sesshoumaru saw that the man's eyes were dripping spiders. Despite the spider, those empty orbits were directed right. On. Sesshoumaru.

"Get outta here," someone moaned from the room's tatami mats. Sesshoumaru's golden eyes traveled down to the voice's source and narrowed. Somehow, he wasn't surprised to see his little brother, Inuyasha, sprawled on the floor. The young man's hair had been cut into the style of a human's, and he wore a baggy red hoodie with baggy blue jeans. Trust his little brother to dress as such at a formal event. Well, not that the style of one's dress mattered now, anyway.

"What happened?" Sesshoumaru wondered out loud, not really speaking with Inuyasha.

"Doesn't mean anything now. Get outta here. I'll be damned if he gets stronger cause you were dumb enough to stay," said the half demon who lay crumpled on the floor with almost all of his bones broken. His arms stuck out at awkward angles, likely snapped clean in two at multiple places. His right leg had been twisted out of its socket.

"Hmn," Sesshoumaru managed to sneer, but then the great demon fell to his knees, and something splattered to the floor. He calmly looked down, his eyesight almost gone.

"Jesus!" Inuyasha yelped, staring at what plopped from Sesshoumaru. It lay in a wet pile, steaming from the cold. "Dammit. Dammit! Dammit!" Inuyasha tried to slam his fist onto the floor, tears wet on his dirty face, but his hand was limp and destroyed. The young man glanced to his right, and choked on a sob. There was a woman next to him, dead perhaps for a few minutes. "WE have to get outta here," Inuyasha said again, knowing that no one could. "He'll do it to us like he did it to them. Then, there's no telling what he would do. We. Can’t Let. Him.”

The hung man began to swing in his noose once more. _Creeaaaak. Creeeeeeeak. Crrrreeeaaak_. With each swing, his body came closer and closer to the floor. Swing, swing. A foot. A few inches.

Nothing left.

**49 Years Ago**

Sesshoumaru woke up. He was one his back in the courtyard, staring up at the inky black night. Briefly, he thought that the sky might not all of those stars. He couldn't smell the faint decay of the Fall leaves he used as a bed. He couldn't taste the air, full of planets and dreams. All he could do was recall his last night of life, or rather, what was left of the memory. Something occurred right after the hung man's feet touched the tatami mats covering the floor. Something…horrifying. But what could horrify Sesshoumaru?

He sat up, attempting to set a hand on the leaf strewn ground to push himself off and up, but his hand… His hand slipped right into the ground. He jerked his fingertips away and observed his palm. Right now, his hand was made of flesh, bone, blood, capillaries, tendons, but then, when he concentrated, there was nothing there at all. His eyebrows pulled together in thought. Sesshoumaru set his hand once more onto the ground and pushed, this time without falling right into the earth. Why hadn't his body collapsed into the ground before this? No matter. He would learn.

"Bout time you woke up," someone said in a disgruntled manner.

"Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru murmured. His brother was surely dead. Ah, but so was he himself.

"Damn straight. Took you, eh, bout a year to get your lazy ass in gear."

Sesshoumaru followed his brother's irritating voice until he located the half demon. The young man stood fused to the trunk of a thick oak tree. The oak seemed to have slurped away the strength of it surrounding comrades, leaving them as no more than sticks. Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes, cautiously walking up to his brother. If he imagined his feet breaking the leaves as he walked, then they would do just that. If he stopped, so would they. Inuyasha moved, and by the light of stars, Sesshoumaru saw why his brother would not come closer of his own volition. Patches of the light brown bark dug into his brother's face and to the skin of his body. The bark had sprouted roots, and those roots had made more roots, and with them all combined, they had burrowed into not only Inuyasha's veins, but the very essence that made him, him. Shreds of clothes lay at the boy's feet, fluttering like birds in the soft wind. There was no way that Inuyasha would be able to free himself. Not like that.

"What are you looking at?" Inuyasha growled. He bared his teeth.

Sesshoumaru turned to leave. There was no time for this nonsense.

"You can't leave if that's what you're trying." Inuyasha struggled on the tree, attempting to pull his skin from the grasping fingers of the bark and its roots. The tree pulled Inuyasha further into its wooden prison, and the young man sunk deeper. He was almost halfway eaten. "Shit!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Eh? By shit?" Inuyasha huffed when Sesshoumaru remained silent. "That you can't leave? I mean just that. None of us can leave. Seen it go down shit ton of times with a few of the others." Inuyasha relaxed on the tree in a mirror of defeat. "That Bastard made his curse like that. Can't leave til he does."

"Hmn." Sesshoumaru unconsciously let his hand drift down to his stomach, clutching at the bloody hole of guts and mush. Leaving the half demon to his own devices, Sesshoumaru walked the perimeter of Akatsuki's property and watched as ignorant fools entered to sate their curiosity of the mansion, only to become a meal. Women, children, demons, everyone died here. If they were lucky, they would die outside of that cursed room. If they were not, then they were gone forever. No matter what, those fools could not see him, leaving an aching pit of hopelessness within his chest. Being a ghost did not suit him. No, not at all.

Sesshoumaru walked and walked, feeling nothing and at times, thinking about nothing. Inuyasha was no comfort. Neither were the others. Just the leaves, the spoiling mansion, and his blank memory until one day, or night, he moved his foot forward, trying to step over the line of the property out of pure restlessness. When he did, the outside bled away, and he was in that room. The one he avoided out of pure spite.

"PAPA!"

A girl screamed, making Sesshoumaru's ears ring. Why was there a girl here? He blinked and saw a man enter the maw of the creature who had killed them all. Sesshoumaru felt his teeth grind. That thing should not have the upper hand. He would not allow it. The little girl, the one with so much spiritual energy that she may burst, rushed over to the dining pair. Her little face was brave, like she truly intended to throw herself at that beast. Sesshoumaru blocked her path, and those liquid brown eyes of hers blazed with human defiance as she glared at him. At him. She could see him. In that gaze alone he saw so much, too much, and to make him take this scrap of feeling he lost long, long ago…that made him feel like he hadn't felt since he was a child. He dare this human child. How dare she.

**5 Years Ago**

He had seen her many times since the night her father was devoured. He saw her in the air, practicing archery and hitting the mark's bullseye once, twice, ten times. He saw her in the wan face of Inuyasha, distant and energy absorbed, as she buried her grandfather with a stoic determination. In each crunch of the leaves made by birds or rabbits, he heard her distant conversations with family and friends. Yes, she was okay. Yes, she would go to college. Yes, she would take the job. Yes, she was taking her medication. No, she was not. He watched her in the mirror beset in the mansion's drawing room, brushing her thick hair or aiding her in her brother's study. At times, she would look up or behind her shoulder, and he would swear that she say him. She had to see him. Let her see him like that day. And then she would shake her head and turn away.

Sesshoumaru was patient, letting the drops of the girl's life fall upon his shoulders and hands and face like living rain. What else could he do here in this mansion from the grave? Even a human's life was more interesting than a ghost's.

From the belly of Akatsuki Mansion, a beast lifted its great head, hungry.

**4 Years Ago**

So hungry. It grasped with many fingered hand and pulled and yanked.

**3 Years Ago**

Centimeter by centimeter, the thing crawled.

**2 Years Ago**

The thing began to drool, heaving its mass unties weight was once again bearable, and it could move with grace and stealth.

**1 Year Ago**

The moments that passed for the creature were short, but to the world, years scattered away like ants.

Now

Sesshoumaru felt the thing move and was broken from his reverie of the taste of the human's life. The demon blinked, his glazed golden eyes now acute and aware. Had he been standing in the courtyard for, how long? Minutes and seconds no longer meant a thing to him now that he was dead and his corpse somewhere underground now bones and bleach hair. He gathered his recollection of time, rewinding and tinkering until, yes. He spent twenty years watching the girl, no, the woman through the fold of fabric in time. Twenty whole years caught like a moth to a flickering lantern. He had been using her to live again, and to be back here?

"Finally deign to show yourself?" Inuyasha croaked from his cracked and ancient tree. The half demon gasped, despite being a ghost, and yanked at his confining bark and roots. Sesshoumaru gave little attention to his brother. He didn't want to be here, feeling like he had frozen save for the steady dripping of his innards. _Drip. Drip. Drip._ Inuyasha growled and thrashed, gritting his fangs in desperation. Expecting the same result that happened every time his idiotic half brother attempted a campaign for freedom, Sesshoumaru felt an eyebrow rise when the young man actually tore out of the bark of veins and teeth. Inuyasha collapsed onto the ground, his ghostly body heavy, and looked up from his spot on the carpet of Fall litter. "Surprised? I'm not." He coughed, releasing a waterfall of mulching leaves, maggots, and other detritus. He grasped the dead grass under his fingers, emptying the rest of his insides. "I've been watching, and I know. I know that he's out."

"Yes, I already know."

"Don't be a smart ass. You know what I'm getting at."

"Which means we can leave," Sesshoumaru said, more to say anything rather than to answer Inuyasha. The half demon belched up a few more slugs before his heaving brought nothing but air. Why did the half demon not run to find that woman who died with him fifty years ago?

_Because she was eaten._

Sesshoumaru blinked, barely reacting to that fragment of recollection.

"And I'm not sure if us being out is worth him released on the world."

"Certainly not."

"Feh." The half demon stood up, brushing the muck from his front. "What does he want out there. Ya know, besides what he's always wanted." The half demon growled. "I guess whatever it is, I'm still gonna rip his spine out from his nose."

Sesshoumaru's fingers twitched.

"Naraku wants her."

"Who, her?"

"The girl." Sesshoumaru began to move. "He wants the miko."

 

~~**No Stomach for It** ~~


	4. Scream Team

**Now**

Kagome moved her arm behind her back, grasping for a familiar brown quiver filled with arrows tipped in purification magic. She tsked. Out of all the times to be without her weapon of choice, it had to be when a freaky beast threatened her friend's life. A week ago, her bow had snapped clear in two after she purified a particularly nasty ghost haunting a cellar. It didn't take kindly to the idea of fading into that good night. Kagome had hoped to pick up the newly repaired weapon after breakfast. That thing gloating in the corner briefly made her forget why she set out to find Miroku's old prayer beads to begin with. Wait, Miroku's prayer beads—Miroku!

"Miroku, are you still with me?" Kagome chanced flicking worried brown eyes over to Miroku.

The ghost, still stuck pointing at the building mass in the corner, shook his head back and forth. His head twisted around and around until Kagome thought it would just pop off. He had never gone full Excorcist on her before. There was a first for everything, she supposed. His head crunched back into its natural formation, and then the ghost of Miroku was usual her friend again, clear of rot and the ooze of decomposition.

"Dear Buddha, what came over me?" He rubbed his temple as if someone poked him between the eyebrows with a knife.

"That happened," Kagome hissed. She inclined her head at the swirling hair slowly inching down to the unsuspecting Sango. Kohaku hissed and spat like an enraged feline as Sango hid under the table to save herself from falling debris due to the 'earthquake.' If she stayed there any longer…

"Miroku. Do a ghost thing."

"Perchance, what ghost thing are you thinking of?"

"Do the thing ghosts do that separates realities. You know, like what that grudge spirit did a few months ago. Make a bubble or something." Kagome reached for her messenger bag and rummaged inside all while keeping an eye on the smiling creature poised for Sango. Journal, her father's note pad, pens, some work material, there! She located five slips of rectangular paper.

"But," Miroku gulped.

"I don't care. You're a ghost, so you can do it. Sango's life is on the line." As if Kohaku heard, he yowled with fury at the thought of his sister's demise. Miroku's brow furrowed. He bit his lip and clenched his hand into a white fist. He was never really any good at being a ghost. He didn't haunt anyone nor did he seem particularly stuck in this world. Miroku was just—here. As such, he usually avoided the stereotypical usage of ghostly powers. No skulking in the hallways of high schools or crawling out of television sets for him. Now, everything relied on his ability to be what he was. Dead.

"Kohaku, if you can understand me, please. Please get your sister out of there as safely as possibly. I don't care how." Sango glanced up from her perch under the bakery's table, her skin as white as milk. She definitely heard Kagome calling out to Kohaku.

And then everything happened all at once.

Miroku yelled, and as he did so, a warped feeling emanating from his core wrapped Kagome, Sango, Kohaku, and the monster as if they all had been dumped into a vat of animal fat. There was a bubbly sheen around the five entities that blocked their activities from the rest of the frightened bakery patrons, who thought that an earthquake was their only threat.

Kohaku detached from Sango's shoulders, yelping as he lost contact of his sister, and then plunged inside of her. The boy's wretched form bucked and thrashed as his ghostly presence was absorbed by his sister's essence. Kohaku's honey eyes briefly flashed from under Sango's deeper brown until she fully regained sovereign over her body. The woman blinked, saw Miroku with his hand out like some two bit magician attempting a poor magic trick, and then turned to see the creature stalking her from above. She shouted an expletive, grabbed a knife from the table above her, and then threw the utensil like a deadly projectile straight into the beast's three pupiled eye. The creature yelped in an almost human screech, sounding much like both a man's deep baritone and a woman's softer intonation.

Kagome, ahead of all of them, imbued her spiritual power with the rectangular paper she retrieved from her messenger bag, creating a minor paralyzation spell. It was the best she could do under short notice when she would have preferred to fling her heaviest purification arrow straight into the monster's gut…if it had a gut. Was its gut the hair or the eyeball? Instead, she threw the paper and directed to land onto the monster's mass of silky black hairs. She was just in time, for the thing had detached from the wall after a knife had lodged itself deep into its cornea. It would have landed on Sango if not for the spell.

"Sango!" Kagome shouted. She waved the businesswoman over. Sango didn't hesitate. She scrambled to her feet and bolted over to where Kagome and Miroku convened.

"What the Hell is going on, Kagome?" Sango gasped. "Why can I see this stuff? Were you speaking with Kohaku? Why do I feel like he's right here with me?"

"Not now. That spell won't last l—"

The monster shattered her spell with a flurry of sharpened hairs. How long did it take for the creature to break Kagome's spell? Under thirty seconds? Kagome haphazardly zapped another piece of paper and chucked it at the creature to buy another few precious seconds. Now there were only three spells left. This thing was something she never dealt with before. No ghost had broken her spell, albeit a weak one, in under a minute. Either she was getting rusty, or that hairball beast was strong. Well, let's see what it could do against her bow and arrows.

"Come on. I need my bow." Kagome tugged on Sango's sleeve. Sango in turn shook off her high heels, ready to run. "Miroku, you can stop being ghostly now. Follow us!"

"Yes ma'am!" Miroku let his arm drop to his side and caught up with the girls. "Are you feeling alright, dear Sango?"

"Do I know you?" Sango narrowed her eyes at the friendly ghost as the group ran out of the bakery's entrance and onto the street ahead.

"No, but you should." Miroku managed to look suave running for his life, but then again, he was dead. He could spare a second to flirt. The group cut a path down the paved sidewalk passing people recovering their bikes and those who were brushing away dirt from their trousers. The bystanders watched with passing interest, more concerned with recovering from the previous earthquake. Kagome led the way, knowing that after one more block, they'd make it to the repair shop. Pass the police station, through the little garden…just a little closer, and that creep wouldn't ever think about ambushing her and her friends ever again with an arrow in its heart.

"Are we almost to wherever you are taking us, dear Kagome?" Miroku chimed from her left. His voice was strained not from the run, but from fear. Kagome didn't have time for impatience.

"Yes, yes!"

"Oh. Good."

"I don't like the sound of that, _oh good_."

"Er, well, it's kind of because that thing is most certainly one, two, yup, ten feet away."

"WHAT?!"

Kagome risked peering over her shoulder and felt her stomach drop to her feet and left to drag along the pavement as she dashed off. The monster was closer than what Miroku had originally estimated, but it was no longer made of inky black hair with one bulbous eye. It was now comprised of a singular spinal column the length of a school bus and about the thickness of a full grown man's waist. Heading the beast was a skull alit from within by one, red spark in the right eye socket. The teeth of the skull were all sharpened to points and growths akin to horns curved upwards from its brow as if to cut the very air. With its head abreast of the pavement, the creature undulated towards the rag tag group like that of a snake skimming the top of a lake at an alarming pace. That wasn't the creepiest thing she ever saw. Nope.

Okay, yeah. It was.

Kagome would not be able to make it in time to the repair shop, but she'd be damned if she couldn't save her friends, even if one was dead and the other was possessed by the specter of her brother. She grasped a rectangle of paper and chanted, siphoning as much of her power as she felt comfortable losing. Her energy began to drain critically fast.

"Miroku, if something happens to me, take Sango to my mother's shrine. She knows what to do for the most part."

"But," Miroku started.

"I'm not letting that thing hurt you, Kagome," Sango growled. She brandished a fork she must have swiped from the bakery as if it were a broadsword.

"Good to know, but I have a bad feeling about that thing. You don't want to be its next meal. Plus, Kohaku didn't trespass into your body just to get the both of you err, I guess killed." Kagome nodded at them both and then turned to face the creature. The sound of Miroku herding Sango over to a safer area was at all at once pleasant and sad.

Kagome took a deep, steadying breath, and then sent her newborn spell careening towards the hungry beast. The paper stuck directly to its forehead, releasing a torrent of ruby light. The thing screeched, rolling from one side to the other, and moaned in an all too human voice the same as before. Kagome felt goosebumps prick her skin, but she didn't wait to find out how damaged the beast was. In the time it had taken to halt the beast, she had created one more spell and calmly pasted the spell onto the beast's front teeth. The skeleton creature shuddered and changed from the ivory of bone to a charred black. It moved about like a caught alligator, rolling and rolling in fierce agony until it ceased all locomotion. Thick, black steam leaked from creaked that had formed in the beast's webwork of bone and marrow.

"T-there, I did it," Kagome gasped. She wiped her cheek. That took more out of her than she would like to admit. She felt as though she never ate her earlier breakfast, or any food from the past week. Kagome would have to eat enough food to regain her strength, and soon. First, she had to get her weapon and never ever be without one again. "Let's get my bow and get finish the job."

"Kagome!" Miroku and Sango bellowed as one. The whole talking as one thing hadn't been working out for her lately, and she resisted rolling her eyes.

The skeletal monstrosity reared up, now with multiple bones appendages pouring from each side of its spine like a ghoulish millipede, and screamed. It's jaw unhinged like a snake's, and was the perfect size to swallow Kagome whole. The beast's new arms and legs flailed in fury. This was it. She'd end up just like…just like who? She thought of feet adorned in black socks dangling from a gaping maw. Great. Her last thought would be of feet. Would this be her legacy?

A flash of white and gold obscured Kagome's view of the beast that was still poised to lunge at her, although she could tell that the beast was momentarily stunned by this new appearance. The white from long hair braided down to align with a tall man's back. The gold from sharp eyes dulled by death. The stranger was at almost a head taller than her. He wore a cleanly pressed suit, ironed dress pants, and shiny black shoes. It was obvious from his hair and eyes that even when he wasn't a ghost, he was something more than a human when the stranger had been alive. The stranger…was he one? Had she not seen him before?

"Stand back," the man said. He held out an arm between her and the beast. Well, no matter what, she would not be bullied to do whatever this sort of stranger told her to do.

"Umm, no. I've got this," Kagome retorted even though she did not have this.

"As you wish," he responded. That was easier than she thought it would be. The newcomer held out the fingers of his left hand like he had wanted something to happen. What was he going to do, make a whip of concentrated light and smack the beast? If only! The man huffed softly and then, after an expression of mild concentration, held his hand palm out. Surprisingly, the sort of stranger blasted the monster with a beam of concentrated gold light directly from his palm. The beast screeched and inched backwards.

"Lemme at 'em!" Yelled another newcomer from behind Kagome. The man padded over to stand by the sort of stranger's side. He had white hair and gold eyes like the tall man, but something told Kagome that those were the only attributes these two shared just by the way they carried themselves. The newcomer shrieked, "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" He raked nails across a segment of the skeletal monster to no affect. "What the?"

"It would seem that our earthly powers are no more in death," the first man said in contemplation.

"Is that where that gold stuff came from? You know, the crap you shot outta your hand?" The newcomer asked. He jumped back when skeletal fingers reached out to grab him.

"Hmn."

"Taking that as a yes. Well, if you can do it, I can, too." The newcomer held up both hands. He growled, closing his eyes and grinding his teeth. A fine beam of red, pure spiritual energy exploded from the man's two hands, colliding with the side of the beast. It yelped from the bombardment of both attacks.

"Might as well join in," Kagome mumbled. She shakily made one last spell, and while the two strange ghosts blasted the beast with raw spiritual energy, she threw in her lot and flung the spell into the fray. Her spell turned into green daggers, slicing deep into the soft joints of the beast. The combined energies flung the monster back.

" _Hate. Hate. Haaaaaate_!" The thing roared. It turned and dove into the pavement, disappearing from the fighting grounds. Silence wrapped around the arena like a glove. A few citizens watched as a woman staggered over to a bench and sat while her friend walked over and sat with her. The bystanders wondered if they should report the womens' odd behavior to the police station just a few steps away and decided against it. Maybe they had been practicing for a show? Who knows.

"Bastard ran away," Said the shorter of the two new ghosts. He scrubbed a hand across his short white hair with the remanants of a growl plain on his face. "Guess we were too much for the cretin."

"He will be back after he's feasted upon the citizens of Tokyo," said the taller of the two. He glided over to the bench bolted to the sidewalk where Kagome and Sango rested, both drained.

"Feast?" Sango asked.

"I can't let that happen," Kagome mumbled. Sweat gleamed on her brow, but she was so weak that she couldn't bring herself to wipe the moisture off. That didn't mean that she didn't want to. Oh no. Kagome desperately wished that she could have fought the beast off in her best black dress and heels with spot on make up if it meant that the ghost in the business suit would stop looking at her like she was some heathen. Then again, Sango's own makeup had essentially melted off during their run and her heels were lost when they ran from the bakery. Screw looking good.

"Do you not remember me?" The handsome ghost asked, almost as if he wasn't really invested in her answer. Kagome analyzed the open hole in place of the man's stomach. Did she see him that morning? Maybe earlier than that? A creepy shudder boiled down her back. She had a feeling that she did know him, and had seen him many, many times. For the life of her, she just couldn't remember how or when.

"I'm…not sure," was the best she could say.

"You know her. That's why you came here," the shorter man pointed out. He put his arms over his shoulders and stretched. Must have been a force of habit. Ghosts did not need to stretch.

"I am merely against Naraku achieving his goals. I wish to destroy him once and for all so that I may rest," the sort of stranger said. He still was staring at Kagome like she was the ghost and not him. His narrow, golden eyes were searching for something she couldn't understand. He made her nervous.

"Naraku? Why does that name sound so familiar?" Sango thought out loud. She then held up a finger. "Oh! The man who owned Akatsuki Mansion!"

"I've heard of this mansion from Kagome," Miroku mused from behind the bench.

"You have to tell me. What happened? Why is he like this?" Kagome asked the two new ghosts. They knew the beast's name. Maybe they knew more.

"Wish it were that easy, lady," said the shorter man.

"What do you mean?" Miroku asked.

"We have no recollection of why Naraku murdered us and through what means he became what you just saw," the sort of stranger relayed. "I can only deduce that he has been so long a monster that whatever he true intentions were are now clouded with bloodlust and," the ghost pointed to Kagome, "He wants you most of all."

"We won't let him have her," Miroku growled.

"I can't just turn my back on someone who just saved my life," Sango hissed. "And I have too many questions after Kohaku…" Tears lined her eyes, but she battled the moisture away, blinking hard multiple times.

"Right, well. We all can't keep standing here in the open. Those people over there are looking at us like we're loons." Kagome waved her hand in front of her face. "Let me get my bow and we can set up shop at my place. I'll order pizza." Glorious, cheesy pizza with so many carbs and calories that she was guaranteed some sort of spiritual recharge. She felt the gaze of the sort of stranger, and realized, she'd been calling him sort of stranger for no reason. Kagome evened her stare at the ghost in the business suit. "I'm sorry. I never asked. What are your names?"

"Name's Inuyasha, and it pains me to say that this statue here is my half brother," the ghost in baggy jeans huffed while jabbing his thumb in the direction of...

"My name is Sesshoumaru," the half brother said. Staring. He was still staring. Did Kagome have something on her face? Blood? Dirt? And why would he care about something like that with half of his own insides dripping out from him?

"Thank you both for saving my friends," Kagome said. Inuyasha began speaking with Miroku and Sango, but Kagome couldn't hear a word. She stared back at Sesshoumaru, playing at his own game. Her heart gave a painful squeeze, but she brushed that feeling away. "I'm looking forward to working with you."

~~Scream Team~~

* * *

~~~~~~~~ _Special thanks to the readers._

_lizardjade— Thank you for reading and enjoying the first chapter._


	5. The Chilling Adventures Of Exposition

**Twelve Years Ago**

“Nice seeing ya here again, Kagome!” Shippo said. He handed the thirteen-year-old girl a newly finished bow and her usual quiver of arrows. “But why do you keep breaking my dad’s stuff?”

“I’m not doing it on purpose,” Kagome grumbled. She pressed paper bills into the boy’s hand, and he cheerily put the money into his till. Shippo was the same age as Kagome, and his dad trusted him to keep the weaponry shop up and running while he went off on minor errands. He never believed Kagome’s stories of falling and snapping the bows. ‘Those things are as strong as steel. I think you really just want to hang out here.’

Maybe Shippo was partially correct. There were other shops in Tokyo she could take her bow to be worked on, but she preferred the one that had Shippo the best. He was kind and never judged when she would sometimes look in empty places as if someone were there.

Shippo gave Kagome back her change and smiled. He still had a baby face with large, green eyes and poofy ginger hair, and hadn’t quite hit his growth spurt yet. He always wore his green hoodie, and Kagome would sometimes see him taking a nap in the shop with the hood pulled over his head.

“Thanks Shippo. I have to be off now.”

“See ya later, Kagome.” He paused and then added. “Like, in a week, right?” The boy smirked.

“Shush!” Kagome stuck out her tongue and then ran out of the shop. She wished she could have stayed to talk, but she had a duty to fulfill. There was always a duty. There was always no time for friends. Sometimes she saw herself being lonely for the rest of her life. At least she could keep others safe.

Kagome sighed as she padded across the street, heading for her shrine. The girl happened to look at here reflection in a passing shop window. The wares presented in the display was that of a mannequin in a suit, pants, and shiny black shoes. She shook her head, blinked, and checked again, for she did not see a blank mannequin’s face. She instead witnessed a face with a pointed chin and thin, carved lips. The nose was long, and yet the perfect length to be framed by two, sharp eyes blazing gold. Kagome could see that although the man’s head grew natural white locks, he had somehow masked his hair as ebony and short. More human. Kagome rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. Still, he was there on the window.

Where had she seen him before? Where!?

If Kagome focused, she could hear his voice as if from ages ago. Luscious like dark chocolate and almonds, and almost sinful. Her skin cooled from his whisper soft conversation floating the past.

“Jaken, I trust that you submitted the papers properly.” The reflection looked down at someone who wasn’t present in this vision.

“Y-yes, sir. If I may be bold as to speak my mind, sir,” replied a scratchy voice. Kagome almost jolted completely out of the vision from the shock of this new intonation.

“Hmn.”

“I do not know why you wish to take on this responsibility. You are already overburdened from your brother abdicating from his position of power. And now you hope to support a child?”

“I shall do as I please, Jaken. Leave it at that.”

A child? Had this man been a father? Kagome stared, transfixed at the shop’s window. The man frowned from the display, and then moved to stare straight at Kagome. She yelped, and the vision dispersed.

“Are you alright, girl?” Asked an older gentleman who waddled over to where Kagome still stood rooted to the spot.

“Yeah. Thanks,” she relied absently. Her mouth was dry. Had the beautiful man from the vision seen her?

  
**Now**

Sesshoumaru never enjoyed the sight of mortal beings eating before his untimely death, and that fact hadn’t changed. The two living women consumed two entire medium pizzas loaded with green peppers, sausage, and black olives. Such terrible food for the palate. Although perchance his distaste was cast too soon, for once the miko cleaned her hands and mouth of the greasy food, she had returned to staring at him.

She was recalling something, but what?

“Okay, me first then,” Sango said. She leaned back on an orange pillow atop Kagome’s bed. Kagome sat on her computer chair, her legs dangling over the sides, nervously kicking. The three ghostly men stood on opposite sides of the tiny bedroom. Sango turned to Kagome. “I just want to say, sorry.” The woman hugged herself. “I knew you weren’t trying to make fun of me for missing my brother after so long. It has been ten years since he…since he died. It just felt like I ripped the scab straight off of a wound talking to you about how he died. It was as though he just died yesterday.” Sango shuddered and pulled a blue kitten blanket over her shoulders for warmth. “Anyway, I needed time. Thank you for giving me that.” She smiled. “Oh, and for saving my life.”

“Kohaku did some of that saving, too,” Kagome shrugged from her chair. Sesshoumaru felt his mind begin to wander. If he still had the gift of smell, what scent would this woman’s room be? Lavender, chamomile, vanilla? He realized that all of those were calming aromas.

“Right. About that.” Sango hit her right fist into her left palm. “I feel like my body is too small, like there are too many breathes taken, or like I’ve had twenty cups of espresso.”

“I asked your brother to possess you for the time being. He gave you his ghostly sight to protect you from Naraku, but in exchange, he is eating some of your spiritual energy. Your body is compensating for the extra effort.” Kagome waved her hand when Sango and Miroku gasped. “Don’t worry. It’s not enough to kill you.” Sango nodded, but then almost crumpled into herself.

“Maybe it’s for the best that he’s here, then. He never should have died in the first place. I should have been the one.”

“Please don’t say that, Miss Sango,” Miroku advised. He walked over to Sango and took her hand. She was jolted from the shock of contact from a ghost, but then relaxed. “Yes, his death was surprising and unjust, but he wanted you to live. He saved you from that Naraku, after all.”

“And once all of this is over, he’ll need to get out. You won’t survive the year with both of you inside that body,” Kagome pointed out. Sango gripped Miroku’s hand, turning a shade of green. “One step at a time, Sango. One step at a time.”

“Alright. Step one, then. What about our problem of Naraku?” Inuyasha growled. His arms were crossed, and Sesshoumaru was slightly amazed that his half brother was able to wait as long as he did without exploding with inane chatter.

“And why does he want Dear Kagome?” Miroku added.

“Her spiritual power is immense,” Sesshoumaru explained, although he had hoped they would have known enough by know to have answered their own question.

“But there are others like me,” Kagome said, still sorting out why Naraku wanted her.

“He knows you from before. You got away.” Sesshoumaru searched Kagome’s face. Delicate, curious, but hardened. She healed others, but found peace for herself difficult. That unrest stemmed from her father’s death. “Do you not recall the night you and your sire trespassed onto Akatsuki property?”

“No. I mean, yes, but I don’t remember how he died.”

“Interesting.”

“Does that really matter right now? We need to focus on finding a way to kill that menace for good. That way he has no chance of getting Kagome,” Inuyasha huffed. His brow furrowed and darkened. “He killed Kikyo. The bastard slit her throat right in front of me. And he…he...”

“You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to,” Kagome told Inuyasha gently. Inuyasha violently shook his head.

“It’s not that. I…SHIT! I can’t remember!”

Kagome bit her bottom lip. Sesshoumaru watched as her lip became red and puffy. He knew that if he reached out to touch the soft flesh of her lip beneath his thumb, he would not feel a thing.

“Can you remember anything about how you died or anything after, Sesshoumaru?” Kagome asked.

“As I said before, I do not.” Sesshoumaru smelled the scent of leaves and earth from the past, closing his eyes. He never knew that lack of scent would slowly drive him mad. He never knew that the loss of touch would make him tremble. “I recall most of everything before that night,” he continued. The blood and gore was something he could not wipe clean from his thoughts. “I can see the scene of my demise, and yet I am unaware of how I awoke as a specter.”

“Just like Miroku…” Kagome commented. “But you two, if I’m not mistaken, are…were demons?” She pointed at Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha.

“Inuyasha is only half demon. I am full,” Sesshoumaru assured the miko.

“You would be the one to tell her that, wouldn’t ya?” Inuyasha barked.

“I have an idea. Can you make ME go back in time to relive a memory? Lots of ghosts can do that. I don’t really like it much, but sometimes the time trip helps soothe their fury.” Kagome sighed. “And I think finding out what Naraku specifically did may be the only way to stop him.”

“I’m not much of a ghost. I’ve tried helping her but can’t get it right,” Miroku filled in. “However, you two might be able to send her back in time. I am completely certain that I could never blast pure energy at a foe like you two did before.” Miroku gave them all his trademark, roguish grin. “My true power is with the ladies.” Sango let go of Miroku’s hand and rolled her eyes. “Err,” Miroku mumbled.

“How do you propose that we begin such a task?” Sesshoumaru said, ignoring Miroku’s uncanny ability to stick his foot into his mouth.

“Well, whenever I start snooping in libraries to learn about a ghost’s death and visit the places of their death, they usually either start remembering with me or they send me back in time to punish me.” Kagome tensed as if caught in a recollection. “The ghosts who send me back usually have one thing in common—they can relate to me, or I can relate to them. For example, I haven’t had a single, middle aged male ghost who works in the government throw me into his past.”

“Well, your prayers are answered,” Inuyasha interjected. He floated over to Kagome and poked her on the nose. She blinked and stared up at him, a small blush spreading over her cheeks. Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes. “Aren’t you two acquainted?” Inuyasha jabbed a thumb in Sesshoumaru’s direction. “What’s more in common than you both escaping that bastard, Naraku?”

“So I should focus on Sesshoumaru’s past?” Kagome thought aloud.

“You would have better chances with me. Admittedly, Inuyasha is right. We do share…a past.” Sesshoumaru dismissed Inuyasha smug smirk, focusing only on Kagome. “And being that I am a full demon, I would be able to draw more power than Inuyasha to send you to an appropriate time.”

“There it is,” Inuyashas groaned.

Sesshoumaru felt as though answering Inuyasha’s jab would be be a waste of time and energy. He instead focused on Kagome’s practiced movements in flipping open a thin screen attached to what seemed to be a flat type writer. She pressed a button, and the screen flared to life. Inuyasha and Miroku watched, just as curious as Sesshoumaru or even more so. Kagome sorted through multiple images until she landed on a blank white page save for a bar with something that read ‘google’ at its base. The miko typed something into the miniature typewriter, and the words appeared on the screen inside of the bar. Humans didn’t have powers, but they did have ingenuity on their side.

“So, I hope you don’t mind my asking, but I thought demons weren’t truly real,” Miroku asked. He was now sitting on Kagome’s bed next to Sango, who in turn smirked.

“Says the ghost to the other ghost,” she chuckled.

“Heh. Demons are real and have been since forever. They just got clever and hid their differences through glamour,” Inuyasha answered. He ran a hand along his head, pausing. Sesshoumaru did not notice before, or he simply didn’t care, but he saw now. Inuyasha’s ears were gone. How so? Inuyasha continued as if he hadn’t discovered himself earless. “I suppose it rubs off when you’re near death, or are actually dead. Before this, I was never near death to find out.” Sesshoumaru checked his half brother over one more time. Human ears? “Now it’s my turn. Kagome, you seem practiced in this sorta stuff. How long have you been at it? Why aren’t you scared?”Inuyasha titled head at Kagome. She answered as she continued typing into what she called a laptop.

“I’ve been like this since I was born.” She clucked and brought up the google page again. “After my father died, my mom learned to understand what I was. We eventually told my grandpa, who had a touch of the, err, gift, himself. My younger brother, Sota, knows, too. I’m sane because of their help. I’m also sane because I fake take pills so others don’t question some of my questionable actions.”

“Huh,” Inuyasha pondered.

“You have grown strong but lonely,” Sesshoumaru commented. Kagome jerked up. Sesshoumaru did not know why he felt as thought he had to say something to soothe the ache he caused from those words. “Sometimes loneliness is strength in itself.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Sesshoumaru,” she said. She didn’t look at him, and he felt like he was the one wounded instead. He wanted to growl, but held such an undignified response back. Kagome clapped, sufficiently bringing him out of his self judgement. “Aha! I’ve got an article from fifty years ago.”

“How can you do that in such a tiny screen?” Miroku asked.

“You never were good with technology, Miroku…huh.” Kagome scratched her head. Did she find out something about her doltish friend? “Anyway, it says here that the bodies from that night at Akatsuki Mansion were found in the morning. Each person had been murdered with a different method. Of the victims…where are you, where are you, ha! There you are Sesshoumaru.” She pointed to a picture. That was indeed a photograph of his glamoured likeness.

“Hmn.”

“Sesshoumaru is survived by his adopted daughter, Rin,” Kagome read out loud from the screen. Sesshoumaru let his hand drop from his belly. His dirtied, bloodied fingers shook. Streams of unending guts, bile, and blood splattered to the floor. Sango gagged. Kagome gasped, putting him under the spotlight of her concerned brown eyes. “Crap, are you alright.”

“I shall be fine,” he whispered. Rin. How could he forget her? Kagome’s empathetic expression was still turned upon him. She cautiously continued.

“Then I guess we have a lead. Tomorrow, I’ll visit Rin.”

“She’s alive?” Sango asked after clearing her throat.

“I know she is,” Kagome exhaled. “She’s my boss.”

 ~~The Chilling Adventures Of Exposition~~


	6. Too Late

Kagome and her rag tag group of humans and ghosts arrived at the Shikon Newspaper Headquarters exactly at ten in the morning. The air was stale and bit into Kagome's exposed skin despite her thick cotton turtleneck sweater and tight black jeans. Her breath solidified and then melted away in front of her eyes, while her companions' did not. Miroku was the only one who still tempted to breathe in and out despite his current undeadly state. Kagome wearily took stock of her companions; Sango was now appropriately dressed in ghost hunting gear including a fitted black jacket, black capris, and knee high boots sans high heels, Miroku's shoulder still bled, Inuyasha's frown indicated impatience, and Sesshoumaru's unwavering attention was…on Kagome. She stiffened, her heart doing a tumble. Did he really have to do that? It was unnerving, and maybe a little curious. Something told her that he absorbed every little detail behind those golden eyes. He knew what he was doing, he was aware of his actions, and yet he still continued to stare.

"Alright. Here it is. Welcome to Shikon Newspaper," Kagome announced if not a bit hesitantly. She felt only a little reluctant revealing that her workplace was what others would believe be a gag job. Her company sold newspapers and magazines with exciting content that included titles such as "Six Ways to Avoid the Bathroom Ghosts," or "Seven Real Accounts of Being Possessed," and her favorite "Do Not Burn the Houses of a Grudge." Grainy photographs accompanied the headlines with interviewees' eyes blocked out by back bars. The photos of ghosts were obviously fake. She knew because it was her secondary task to photoshop the contents. There was no way an actually ghost could be photographed. The articles, however, were another story. They were real. Kagome never really told Sango the truth about her profession, only explaining to her friend that she was a reporter. Just never the whole, reporting about ghosts thing.

The company filtered through the entrance as they stared at the lines of computers, piles of scattered papers, pictures, and ink stains crowding the area. The insides of Shikon Newspaper must have resembled one of those detective boards where they traced clues about murder victims and other crimes. Kagome glanced at her own desk, the tidiest desk of the ten or so there. Her report from two days before sat in neat pile. It looked as though the editor had approved her article and cleaned what little grammar errors Kagome committed. A man sitting at the least tidiest of the ten or so there blinked and then smirked when he caught sight of Kagome. He bounced up from his work, leaving his laptop open, and bounded over to the newcomers. Kagome inwardly sighed. How many more times would she have to tell him that he needed to save his progress before flitting away like that?

"Kagome! This must be my lucky day. I thought you were off, or maybe…you missed me that much?" Asked the man in deep, throaty voice. He smiled, showing off his even white teeth. He wore a warm sweatshirt paired with comfortable jeans, attire more for basking next to a fireplace at home than in one's workplace. His black brown hair was pulled up into a tight ponytail. The man's stunning turquoise eyes were only for Kagome. They sparkled with a wiley anticipation, as if he was hoping she would return his enthusiasm.

"Hey Kouga. Is your mom in?" Kagome said. She felt bad when Kouga's shoulders slumped in utter defeat. But then he shrugged and grinned his charming grin. His disappointment would only be apparent to the practiced eye. Sesshoumaru missed nothing from behind Kagome's shoulder.

"Uh, sure. And the moon is falling." Kouga rolled his bright eyes and huffed. "Yeah, ma's in."

"You know what I meant. Can we see her? Is she available?" Kagome moved towards the stairs that would lead her up to the second floor. Kouga moved with her, keeping pace, and finally saw Sango. He scrubbed the back of his head with a hand and sheepishly held out his hand.

"Sorry about that. Nice to meet ya. My name is Kouga."

Sango stared at his hand and then up at Kagome, silent until Kagome explained.

"Rin is his adoptive mother," Kagome said. She saw Sesshoumaru begin to reassess Kouga, scrutinizing the man's build and his mannerisms. It must have drove Sesshoumaru insane to be unable to discern Kouga's scent. Whatever was going on within Sesshoumaru, he must have come to a conclusion, because he returned his musings towards Kagome. She nervously cracked her knuckles.

"I see. Well, nice to meet you, too. I'm Sango." Sango offered her hand, and the two shook.

"And I'm bored. Can we get a move on already?" Inuyasha growled from behind. His arms were crossed either from boredom, frustration, or perhaps both. His foot tapped at the floor as he glared at the buzzing computers as if they offended his great ancestors. Kouga's head jerked, his turquoise eyes searching. If he had wold ears, they would have swiveled around in a frenzy. Ah. Kagome opened her mouth to tell Inuyasha to watch what he said, but Miroku beat her to the punch.

"Come now, Inuyasha. He seems like a decent enough fellow." Miroku patted Inuyasha on the shoulder. The half demon cursed but said nothing more. Miroku smiled serenely and gently bowed towards Kouga, even though the man couldn't have seen the gesture.

"I'll let her know that you're going to see her. Just follow that yellow brick road," Kouga said slowly. He absently waved his fingers towards the staircase, but his attention was now directly on the spot where Inuyasha and Miroku stood. If Kouga were a dog, his hackles would be up.

"Thanks, Kouga," Kagome chirped. Sango nodded at Kouga as he traversed the workshop and sat back down at his desk. He nabbed his phone and began texting at lightning speed. Kagome's last view of Kouga as she opened the door leading up to the steps, was of his weary stare. The door shut behind them, and the group ascended the staircase. Thank goodness Kagome released the creepy staircase ghost when she first started working at Shikon Newspaper, and yet that familiar sense of chill always scraped dreadful claws down her back.

"So, you work at one of these newspapers?" Sango cautiously asked. Their voices echoed throughout the staircase. Good. Kagome would rather talk about this than remember the armless ghost that had slithered down this very worn railing.

"I know what it looks like, but many of the reports here are real. People just really don't want to believe in them is all," Kagome tried to explain.

"Guess I was one of those people just yesterday," Sango sighed and held a hand to her chest as if to calm herself. Kagome wasn't sure if her friend could hear Kohaku within her. Could they converse with one another? Kagome really didn't want to pry into such a precarious situation. She already got her friend into trouble just by being the target of this Naraku fellow. Kagome had to fix this whole mess and fast. Kohaku, no matter how benevolent, would kill Sango if he stayed in her body for too long.

"I wouldn't have imagined this certain predicament, either," Miroku added. Sango smiled back at him. "Never in my wildest dreams would I have concocted a situation where I could meet such a lovely young woman." Miroku playfully bumped his shoulder to Sango's. She sucked in a breath, bumped him back with perhaps too much force, and stormed up to Kagome with a face as red as wine. Miroku only chuckled, the fiend.

Kagome saw Sesshoumaru from the corner of her eye after her friends' exchange. His mouth was pulled into a thin line, his fists slightly clenched, and his eyes focused. He was no longer staring at her but at the stairs. Was he thinking about Rin, his adoptive daughter? Kagome never stopped to think about what emotions she was going to force onto Sesshoumaru. He had died, and his daughter lived. What was he expecting he would get from this anticipated interaction? Kagome felt herself softening, and for some reason wanted to comfort him.

"Don't worry, Sesshoumaru. We're almost there," Kagome heard herself say. Her chest squeezed for no reason as she waited for a reply.

"Hmn." Sesshoumaru's demeanor didn't change, but he was back staring at her and yet this time, she couldn't meet the cold sadness that was reflected in those rises. She turned and almost lunged for the door to the second floor. At last, the dim light of a sun covered by clouds filtered through blinds poured over the group as they walked through a hallway lined with cubicles. Kagome sped over to the office at the very end and knocked. A plaque was set into the wall; Director Rin of Inutaishou Industries. No doubt, Sesshoumaru had already read the plaque. A wise, feminine voice laced with patience only age could obtain answered from within the room. Alright, this was it. No turning back, now. Kagome let herself and the entourage in.

A regal woman in her early sixties sat at a table inset with a panel of shimmering clear glass. A desktop computer with three screens showed the progress of her next project. The woman crossed her legs and sipped from a crystal flute containing sparkling white wine. Classical music streamed through surround sound within the office, and the woman heavily sighed from the peace it offered. She set down her glass and the cellular phone she was tapping through. With a click of a button, the floor to ceiling windows showcasing her office were shut, the blinds automatically closing. Lamps around the office flicked on, emitting a gentle glow.

"Ah, Kagome! What a surprise. How's the hunting?" The woman asked in a motherly tone. She may have been in her sixties, but her face and form clothed in a business suit projected the soul of a woman far younger. Her bobbed brown hair was lightly peppered with silver strands, her nails and makeup perfectly cleaned and painted, and her dark brown eyes as sharp as daggers. Kagome could count on Rin to be a sturdy rock like her own mother had been, but that didn't mean Rin was any less imposing.

"It's been something, alright," Kagome replied cautiously. The ghostly specter of Sesshoumaru hovered somewhere behind her. She could almost feel the remnants of his earthly power churn around her. She wanted to turn and see this ghost's reaction to his long lost child. Was he proud of Rin? Glad to see her? The woman drinking wine at her desk was strong, decisive, and at times, cut throat. Was this what he wanted from the child he took under his wing?

"Kouga told me that you have some ghosts with you," Rin said. She inspected her fingernails, which were the shade of an evergreen tree and sparkled under lamplight. The woman glanced up from hooded eyes, waiting for a response.

The whole group save for Kagome and Sesshoumaru flinched. Inuyasha loped up to the desk, staring intently at Rin. That's right. Inuyasha must have met with Rin at some point in the past. What did he think of his niece now?

"Yeah. We have a big problem to sort out with you," Inuyasha barked.

"Sit down. You, too, miss. How can I help?" Rin said, ignoring the ghostly Inuyasha. She inclined her head at Kagome and then to Sango. No one said no to Rin. The two women sat down immediately.

Kagome pulled out a mahogany chair fitted with a fluffy black cushion. Kagome could feel the fabric dent underneath her weight, and she saw Sango sink down into her own chair cushion.

"First, you've gotta tell me why ya know about ghosts. About us," Inuyasha growled. He pounded his fist on Rin's desk, the movement tangible enough to knock over a container of high grade fountain pens. Rin raised one delicate eyebrow at the pens, pinning down the spot where Inuyasha stood in clear wonder. That particular move had to be learned from Sesshoumaru.

"Simple," Rin slowly and sweetly replied. "I can hear the undead. Just like my boy, Kouga." She narrowed her eyes at where she last heard Inuyasha, her finger making circles atop the desk. "My, but you do sound familiar."

Inuyasha reeled back.

"Can you tell me anything about the murders at Akatsuki Mansion?" Kagome cut in. First, she needed the facts. There can be reunions as soon as she got answers. Maybe those answers could help her get closer to Sesshoumaru, and therefore find out why Naraku went psycho and cursed a handful of people for eternity. Yeesh. Out of all the jobs and so called 'gifts' she could have received, it had to be this one.

"Cutting to the quick, are we?" Rin bit her lip, took another sip of her wine, and then repositioned herself in her swivel chair. "Very well. I said I would help, so I shall. My adoptive father was murdered in that horrid mansion. I told you about him, yes?" Kagome shook her head, and Rin cocked her head. "No? Ah, see, my parents were both killed in a car crash when I was eight. They knew about my ability to hear ghosts and accepted my path as a ghost mediator. Social services, however, did not. I was bounced from family member to family member until foster care eventually took me in." Rin steepled her fingers as she explained her background in a concise, almost bored recollection. But then something changed. Her jaw clenched and eyes sparked as she continued.

"And then one day, when I was ten, I saw a man crossing the street. A truck swerved to miss a bicycle in its path and was about to hit this man. I tried to push the man out of the way, but he was already gone, just like that! As if he had superpowers, ha! He ended up saving me instead." The older woman closed her eyes. "That man was my adoptive father, Sesshoumaru. In the next few months, he appropriated all the papers for my adoption and not once did he mention my odd habits of listening to the dead."

"That's sweet," Kagome said for the lack of anything else to say. Clearly, this was a difficult topic for Rin to cover.

"That night fifty years ago, one of Naraku's men kidnapped me in some sort of sick leverage against Mr. Sesshoumaru. I was blindfolded, gagged, and taken somewhere dark. I know that I was alone for a long time until Mr. Jaken, Mr. Sesshoumaru's assistant, found me with the help of the police. They told me that Mr. Sesshoumaru was dead…"

"What happened after that?" Sango asked. Kagome couldn't seem to get any words out and was grateful for Sango stepping in. She could feel a ghost's unfiltered fury right next to her. Sesshoumaru was at her side, silently seething as he listened to how his daughter was treated.

"Mr. Sesshoumaru's mother took me in. I don't know why, though. She never truly seemed invested in raising me. It was surprisingly Mr. Jaken that stepped in." Another sip of wine, draining the contents. "After everything, I went to the mansion when I was your age. I thought that maybe I could hear something, anything. I have only ever heard one, solitary word—wait."

"Is that why you made Shikon News?" Kagome managed to whisper.

"You're sharp. That's why I hired you." Rin clasped her hands tightly until her knuckles turned white. "That and your sight." The older woman shook her head. "But yes. When I inherited Mr. Sesshoumaru's business empire, I used a small portion to fund this newspaper. I always hoped that one day, I'd get a whiff of anything related to Akatsuki Mansion. Anything at all. And there was absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing until today. At last."

"Yes. About that. You see…" Sango lifted her hand up as if to indicate a point. Sesshoumaru moved closer to the desk. Inuyasha backed off as if sensing that an interruption would not be the best idea on his part.

"Rin," Sesshoumaru said.

"Mr…Mr. Sesshoumaru?" A complete transformation took place before the group. The sharp, determined business woman had somehow melted into that of a young girl, although her features stayed the same. She stood up, desperately trying to see where Sesshoumaru was standing, but failing. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes. Kagome clenched the armrests of her chair. This poor woman never had a chance to grow up with a father she so clearly admired. Sesshoumaru was never able to raise Rin. Naraku had severed this family into pieces.

"You've done well for yourself," Sesshoumaru replied.

"That, that means everything," Rin beamed.

The sight of her ever stoic boss reduced to trembling tears unnerved Kagome. In fact, just being in this room full of ghosts and ruined lives was making her sick. There was so much pain here. So many memories tarnished. So much hurt. And under that hurt, hiding like a sick maggot eating away at rancid flesh, was a terrifying anger that Kagome was unsure how to control. Kagome shot up from her seat. All eyes went to her, but she refused to blush.

"Hey, I'll be right back. Bathroom." She brushed passed Sesshoumaru and around Miroku at the door. Miroku moved as if to stop her, but she just shook her head. He nodded, knowing that she needed her space. Kagome traveled to the bathroom, her face hot with rage. She had never known so much anger in her life. Not when her father disappeared. She couldn't clearly recall what happened. Not when ghosts clearly in need in her help instead tried to kill her. They were terrified and usually didn't know they were even dead. Not when her grandfather died, leaving her to face this ridiculous gift alone. Hell, if this didn't make her feel a little connection with Sesshoumaru and Rin to fuel the time shift, then she didn't know what would.

Kagome saw her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her face was beet red, and when she put her frigid hand to her cheek, her fingers burned. She watched as her mouth turned down in an unpleasant frown, her brown eyes furious. She would save them all. Each and every one of them. Inuyahsa, Miroku, Kohaku, everyone Naraku had destroyed, including Sesshoumaru. This was her world, and Naraku didn't have a place in it.

And that was when a ghost glided into the woman's bathroom, passing through the locked door and lending a faint glow to the already shining white tiled surfaces. Kagome gasped and turned.

"Sesshoumaru, w-what are you doing here?" She squeaked. Damn, some avenger she was turning out to be. Behold, the dangerous squeaker toy, Mr. Naraku. Kagome nervously brushed her hair back behind her shoulders.

"Your absence was noted. I believe that you should not be left alone for any extended duration." Sesshoumaru looked Kagome over from her face down to her feet. How could he do that so boldly? Well, two could play at that game. She took her time looking over the ghost who baffled her so many times. He had a long, delicate nose, almost feminine. His lips were evenly proportioned and yet so perfectly placed on his face. Sesshoumaru's enchanting golden eyes ended in pointed, full eyelashes any woman would be envious of. His shoulders were long and broad, inviting a woman's gaze to travel down to his chest, his narrow waist, his hips..."Naraku is after you. He will kill you," Sesshoumaru said, snapping Kagome out of her revere. And his opened stomach. Yes, the guts. The innards. Kagome reprimanded herself. Sesshoumaru. Was. Dead.

"Thanks, I guess. Let's get back, then. I have more questions for Rin," Kagome sighed. They both made for the door when a creature bubbled from the surface of the bathroom stall's door. It plopped to the floor, inching its way across the bathroom floor. The thing's eyes were two sunken sockets pressed deep into its skull with two dry slits for a nose. Chalky gray skin hung in bags around the bones of the creature as it dragged itself across the floor with elongated, mummified arms. It had no jaw. Its long, shriveled tongue scraped along the tile, leaving a stretch of clean floor. The creature did not have legs or a pelvis at all, leaving just a severed thoracic cavity with just the tip of a shattered spine poking out from its terrifying, aged skin.

Without thinking, Kagome pushed Sesshoumaru back into the opposite wall, thrusting her arms out to keep the ghost from moving around her. Not like that could have done anything substantial, but it seemed like Sesshoumaru was attempting to obey the laws of physics, or at least as much as Miroku tried.

"Wait! Don't touch that one," Kagome hissed between clenched teeth. Her spine tingled as the thing groaned, its vocal chords barely able to support such a sound. Ugh! She backed further away, well aware that if Sesshoumaru had been alive, she would have been able to feel the heat of his chest on her back. She bit her lip. "If it touches you, or me for the matter, it'll drain all of your spiritual energy. Seeing as you're nothing but spiritual energy, I'm not sure what would happen then."

"There is no need. I can protect myself," Sesshoumaru replied with his usual calm disposition.

"You managed to get yourself killed and become an avenging spirit. There's every need," Kagome said, completely deadpan.

"Hmn."

They both watched the jawless creature scrub along the floor in a blind path, always a few feet away. Kagome was also learning that though Sesshoumaru was dead and therefore without heat, her special ability was allowing her to feel everything behind her. So she could feel his chest. Unfortunately, she could also feel his gaping stomach wound. She hoped her bow and arrows weren't bothering him.

"Say, Sesshoumaru? Did you ever try to reach out to me? You know, before we officially met yesterday?" Kagome asked. She may as well get some answers while they were forced to cling to the bathroom wall. Sesshoumaru shifted, and she watched in the mirror as Sesshoumaru placed his hands on Kagome's shoulders. Slow. Deliberate.

"I was bound, unable to leave the mansion. However, there were times when I saw you."

"Saw me how?" She gulped. His hands were moving down her arms as if he were trying to figure out a puzzle.

"Through mirrors. Windows. A crack between a door. Glimpses." Sesshoumaru's usual soft voice deepened, and somehow his mouth was next to the shell of her ear.

"Maybe that's why I feel like I've known you for a very long time," Kagome wondered out loud. She hadn't noticed that she was breathing hard and that there was a line of gooseflesh down her legs. Sesshoumaru's hands were about to cover hers, and despite everything, they were burning hot. Why? How?

"Perhaps," Sesshoumaru said, his ghostly breath dusting her neck.

"Kagome! Ma says Gramps is here. I've heard so much bout the geezer." A man said from outside. There were a few knocks at the door. Kagome jumped away from Sesshoumaru, and he gently let his hands rest at his sides. The spiritual drainer was gone a long time ago. How long did Kagome and Sesshoumaru stand there? Kagome licked dry lips. This disturbance was for the best.

"Come on, we need to get back," Kagome said. Sesshoumaru nodded. They left the bathroom together, and there was Kouga grinning like a loon waiting outside. He walked with them to Rin's office.

"What took you so long, Kagome?"

"Spirit stuff," Kagome mumbled as she opened the door to her boss's office.

"I can't believe Ma finally found Gramps. We've got lots to catch up on," Kouga said. Inuyasha huffed from his place at the desk. He was fine with floating in the air with legs crossed and in a perpetual pout.

"Kouga," Rin sighed. "Manners."

"Sorry ma'am." Kouga scratched the back of his head.

"Well, now everyone is here, I have something important to say," Rin said as she massaged her temples. Kagome lined up with Sesshoumaru behind Sango. Miroku leaned on Sango's arm rest. Everyone was ready to hear what would come next. "Although I never heard anything about that damned mansion, I did see something. It's important, and now that I've been filled in on what's been happening, what I saw all makes sense now."

"Go on, granny. We ain't got all day," Inuyasha growled, smacking his palm to his face.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome, Sango, and Miroku hissed in tandem. Kouga whipped his head over to where Inuyasha floated and glared daggers almost as impressive as his mother's. Rin held out a hand.

"It's fine. I remember now how crass Mr. Sesshoumaru's younger brother was. I've expected nothing less." She smiled up at Inuyasha's general direction. Inuyasha rolled around so that his back faced his niece.

"Feh!" He growled.

"Back to the matter at hand."

And that was as far as Rin got.

Immediately, something savagely burst through the glass windows. Shards of jagged glass and torn shades sprayed Kagome, Sango, and Kouga. They too late shielded themselves with soft hands and arms. Soon, they were sliced and cut until blood ran freely from open wounds. Kagome clenched her teeth. She wasn't worried about herself. She blinked away debris, clearing her sight. Where was Rin? Where. Was. Rin?

Kagome's mouth dropped when she found her boss, her second mother. Rin was caught in the arms of a pale, naked woman just in front of the ruined window. Cold fall air blew in with a few dried leaves. The woman was unearthly gorgeous with creamy white skin, charming full lips, a curtain of ebony hair as dark as the sea at night, and glimmering brown irises. Her beauty was amplified by the paradox of her lower body. It was that of the beast Naraku, attached in a way that offered no hope of separation. Permanently fused. The naked woman, in what seemed to be in a trance, held tight onto Rin as the woman's main body, Naraku, sat in the parking lot two stories below. She was like a snake that had extended its head into that of a bird's nest to devour fresh eggs. Kagome could barely see the myriad of hands and matted hair that haunted her nightmare last night. But now, a face appeared on the back of the creature in the parking lot.

"Ma!" Kouga screamed. He probably couldn't see what was holding his mother hostage. He'd be no use in a fight against the spiritual. Miroku was in shock, still unable to accurately use his ghostly powers. Sango was no better. She could only see ghosts, not fight them. As least, not yet.

"Stay back!" Kagome roared. She whipped out her bow and notched an arrow, fueling the arrow tip with a purification spell.

The naked woman angled Rin, covering her form. If Kagome shot an arrow, she would be hitting Rin, too. From the corner of her eye, she saw Sesshoumaru prepare to fight.

"You can't! That woman holding Rin is like the creature in the bathroom. She'll suck out all of your spiritual energy."

Sesshoumaru's golden eyes bled to a deep red as he growled a deep sound of pain and hurt. What could Kagome do now? What could Sesshoumaru do? What next? Her heart thumped. Maybe she could…

"Kikyo!" Inuyasha wailed. He was shaking up in the air, his attention all for the naked woman keeping Rin hostage. Dammit. Was this the woman Naraku killed right in front of Inuyasha? If Kagome tried to hurt Kikyo, could she trust Inuyasha to remain calm? Shit! It was one damned thing after another. Rin couldn't afford for Kagome to wait any longer.

Rin cursed. There were pieces of glass lodged in her skin, and blood trickled into her mouth from a scrape on her forehead. She made eye contact with Kagome, most likely coming to the same conclusion as her employee. Rin ground her teeth and opened her mouth.

"Kagome. When I was a kid. I saw y—"

The naked woman, Kikyo, shook her head, tsking. A spider's leg exploded from Rin's stomach. The appendage with sprinkled with sharp leg hairs and lined with black stripes. Rin gasped, blood speckling her chin and business suit. She stared down at her stomach and then back up. Her eyes desperately searched the room until they landed on Sesshoumaru.

"There you are," Rin smiled and then fell limp in Kikyo's arms.

**~~Too Late~~ **


	7. Let’s Split Up

Sesshoumaru knew that this faux life after death was a punishment. It had to be. There was no adrenaline fueling his muscles and tendons. No sweat crowning his head. No heartbeat roaring to push him forward. This afterlife could be the cause of Rin's death. He couldn't save her as he was now. There was no use in his recklessness if he touched Inuyasha's woman and vanished. All he could do was watch as Rin's limp body absorbed into the creamy flesh of Kikyo. He could only tremble with thunderous rage when Kikyo retreated back down to rejoin the rest of her body. To rejoin with Naraku.

It was Kagome who reacted first.

She moved as fast as one of her arrows in flight. Kagome yanked out a spell that must have been nestled within her sweater sleeve, and instead of casting the paper onto Kikyo, the spell landed on Inuyasha. The paper touched his ghostly form, and the half demon seized, roared, and fell to the floor. He couldn't move. Sesshoumaru faintly felt some form of admiration. Kagome had efficiently grounded Inuyasha from following Kikyo and therefore forfeiting his ghostly existence. Nothing short of force would have stopped Inuyasha otherwise.

"Let me go! Let. Me. Go!" Inuyasha hissed and spat, more like a cat than the half dog demon he was. It was as though he was completely bound from his shoulders to his toes. The half demon could only wiggle like a worm.

"Ma! We have to get to her!" Kouga screamed. The young man attempted to run over to the broken window, but with a nod from Kagome, Miroku kept Kouga still. Kouga struggled to no avail. Miroku's ghostly foot was pressed tightly over Kouga's. For a ghost with barely any control over his powers, Miroku at least had this situation handled.

The miko ignored both Inuyasha and Kouga's exclamations and tousles. She yanked off the prayer beads she had concealed under her shirt and thrust the necklace into Sango's pale hands. The woman stared numbly at Kagome and then down at the beads. Their purple hue blossomed into a protective blush.

"Listen, Naraku wouldn't have killed Rin. At least, not yet." The group became silent. Kagome turned to Sesshoumaru, her face dusted with red and her brown eyes sharp points. "He's trying to lure you out, Sesshoumaru. Rin has to be alive in order to be bait. He's doing the same thing he did fifty years ago."

"It is more important than ever to traverse time, then," Sesshoumaru agreed. Kagome nodded, and he unconsciously held the bleeding hole of his stomach. He was still unsure if he was truly speaking with the miko. After so many years observing her, watching her grow from a weak child to an adult who would risk her life to put those who are already dead to a peaceful rest…well, he could not help but stare to make certain that she was actually there. That they were interacting. She was his link to living once more, and now she was the link to saving Rin.

Kagome moved and placed a metal key onto Sango's palm. The contact must have been cold, because Sango flinched. "I'm taking Sesshoumaru with me to where he lived with Rin." She turned to Miroku, who was still blocking the struggling Kouga. "Guide Sango and Kouga to Shippo. He has weapons for both of them. Find where Naraku took Rin, but do not engage. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" Miroku said. The man bowed his head in affirmation.

"When you know where they're at, bail. Get back to my house. That's the key I gave you, Sango. Activate my wards and wait for me to come back. Miroku, you've seen me activate my wards before, so you should be fine. We'll strategize when we're all together."

"How long should we wait for you?" Sango asked, shell shocked but still true to her efficient nature.

"A day. These blast from the past adventures don't affect present time, but I'm not exactly sure how this one will go." Kagome glanced up at Sesshoumaru. "Everything is particularly different from usual this time."

"Fine. Go to this Shippo character. Got it. Find whoever this Naraku bastard is. Yeah. But just one thing," Kouga growled. "What the hell is going on?! Who took Ma? All she told me before she flew out the window is that she found Gramps!"

"I shall explain this to you later, my friend," Miroku asserted. Miroku kindly patted Kouga on the shoulder. Kouga couldn't truly feel the ghostly gesture, but he could still hear Miroku. Rin's son relaxed, all of the tension he held in his shoulders at last loosening up. Miroku let go of the reporter. They couldn't waste anymore time with containment.

"Ain't any of you going to let me go?" Inuyasha yelled as he bucked against his bindings. He bared his teeth, and Sesshoumaru noted that it was odd that Inuyasha seemed to be in some sort of half form, neither human, demon, or half demon. When Sesshoumaru died, his glamour disappeared, and yet Inuyasha? The full demon shook his head. What had Inuyasha done that night fifty years ago to be in this state?

"That is of no concern to me," Sesshoumaru said. He already felt the clock begin to tick as Rin's life was put into more and more jeopardy.

"I'll let you go, but you can't go after them. If Kikyo absorbs you, Naraku will get stronger and I don't want to see him any stronger than he already is." Kagome strode over to where Inuyasha lay collapsed on the floor. He growled and shot Kagome with his best imposing glare. Kagome was unimpressed. "You want to save Kikyo, too? Right? We can do that, but you have to wait until Sesshoumaru and I come back." Kagome touched the spell and the paper melted away as if it had sunk into sea water and disintegrated. Inuyasha jumped to his feet in a flash. He rolled his arms as if testing out if he could still do so.

Sesshoumaru, now impatient, moved to Kagome and scooped her up into his arms.

"Wha, Sesshoumaru!?" Kagome wiggled from the demon's tight hold. She was smaller than he thought, and she fit well against his chest. Was she light because of his demon strength, or because he was dead? "Put me down! We can go on foot or by taxi."

"Those methods are inefficient," Sesshoumaru replied. "They will only slow our progress."

"And so will this! People will see me floating around with no strings attached and then they'll stop me, ask questions, not to mention post videos on YouTube. Geeze, come on, Sesshoumaru!" Sesshoumaru thought it odd that one moment the miko was a strong, knowledgeable leader and the next she was a little girl blushing in his arms.

"This is faster. I shall avoid onlookers." Sesshoumaru walked up to the broken window. He wanted to feel the snap of air billowing into the office. He wanted to see Rin down in the parking lot, overjoyed and alive. He wanted to know what scent would suit the woman who kept him sane in that Hell-like madhouse, Akatsuki Mansion. Sesshoumaru only saw the pavement below, vehicles and a full bike rack, and no sight of Rin or her captors. Naraku, the fool, would pay for trifling with Sesshoumaru. "Close your eyes if you're scared."

"Scared?" Kagome crossed her arms and glared. "Don't even start with me."

Sesshoumaru kept to the shadows. He may no longer have his demon abilities, but he was able to access these new powers from beyond the grave. Not a terrible trade off in retrospect. As Sesshoumaru flew through the air, he discovered that he could hide within the very shadows he used as cover. It was almost like peeling away dead skin from a sunburn. There was light, and then there was dark. Sesshoumaru's discovery surely helped when avoiding bystanders, and what the miko called, YouTube videos.

Before long, the two companions were in front of Sesshoumaru's house. The demon let Kagome jump from his arms and onto her feet. She straightened her sweater and touched the wood of her bow as if to comfort her nerves.

"This is your place, huh?" Kagome tilted back her head. The traditionally Japanese house was grand. The paint had just been done in at least a year, the yard was well groomed, and not a speck of grime coated any surface. There were at least three stories to the house, and one could tell that within lay a handsome courtyard that must hold a glorious array of vegetation. The manor was just as Sesshoumaru left it.

"This was." In all likelihood, Rin was now the owner of the manor he once craved and prided over. The manor almost wasn't his due to his father's wishes. If Inuyasha had not abdicated his portion of the family inheritance to be with that woman Kikyo, Sesshoumaru would have been left only with the corporate side of his father's wealth. This manor was the familial home passed down through generations. Sesshoumaru was appalled that his father had skipped over the ever dutiful son to bequeath such a precious heirloom to the son he produced out of wedlock. Once, Sesshoumaru's pride would have caused mountains to crumble and rivers to shrivel. Now that he was dead, and a spector at that, the few years he shared with Rin were worth more than any manor or title. Hindsight was always a bitter medicine.

"You know, I've always avoided this neighborhood? I don't know why. I just felt like I wasn't ready yet." Kagome strode up to the iron gate. There were two guardian lion dogs sitting on either side of the manor's entrance. She pondered the keys on the security pad installed within the gate's wall.

"And you feel as though you are now?" Sesshoumaru calmly walked over to her. He peered over her shoulder and watched as she pressed down on a button with the image of a green telephone.

"I'm gonna have to be." Kagome looked over her shoulder. She jumped slightly, perhaps unaware of how close he had gotten, and then promptly straightened.

"What is it?" A high pitched, grating voice squeaked out from the speakers. Kagome blinked at the security system and then cleared her throat.

"Er, hello. I have a message from Rin." There was no answer. She tried again, attempting to infuse her tone with confidence. "I'm her employee at Shikon Newspaper."

"State your name."

"Kagome Higurashi."

"Kagome Higurashi. Kagome Higurashi….KAGOME HIGURASHI?!" The weasel like voice choked out. There were sounds of something crashing to the floor, papers flapping about, and the familiar tinkle of china breaking. "One moment. I'll be out promptly!" More shuffling about, now closer to the the manor's entrance. The gate groaned open, and Kagome took that as a cue to enter. She walked down the paved circle drive and only just reached the front door when it burst open. A little man in a suit with jaundice-like skin panted in the doorway. He pulled out a handkerchief, wiped the sweat from his bald brow, and blinked his huge black eyes at his new visitor. "Ah, er. Hello! Forgive me, but I wasn't expecting you."

Kagome bowed slightly to the man and chuckled something so softly, only Sesshoumaru could hear her. "They never do."

And that was when the rain began.

**Miroku**

Miroku watched as Sesshoumaru, with Kagome in his arms, jumped out of the window. Being a ghost himself, Miroku did not worry about the possibility that Kagome had just been thrown down to her mushy death, but Kouga didn't know that, and Sango wasn't really up to par with what ghosts were capable of yet. The two living souls shot over to the window. At least Sango could actually see Sesshoumaru taking Kagome away. Kouga probably saw what Kagome feared, a woman floating in the air by herself. He scrubbed at his eyes with the backs of his hands, blinked, and then cursed.

"Alright. Come on. To Shippo's weapon shop," Miroku said. He saw Sango clutch his prayer beads tighter to her chest. Her voice came out fierce and determined. If he were living, that voice would have given Miroku chills.

"I hope I get a ghost slaying machete or something close. I'm done with Naraku's evil doings," Sango said. Miroku turned to hide his smile. If only she was alive before he died. Maybe this story would have been different.

"I'll start looking for Naraku," Inuyasha said. He was already at the window, his muscles tightened to take the plunge.

"Hey, Inuyasha guy," Kouga growled. Kouga's ears twitched and he turned to face where Inuyasha was perched. Miroku was impressed at the accuracy of Kouga's skills. They must have taken a lifetime to hone, and the fact that he had Rin as his adoptive mother would have nurtured his talents further. "Remember what Kagome said. Don't get too cocky. If you end up making Naraku more powerful and killing my Ma, then you'll have a lot more to worry about than being a ghost."

"Relax. I know when to be discreet. Just leave the scouting to me." Inuyasha jumped, but did not fall as gravity would have dictated. He shot straight up into the air, flying over treetops and buildings alike until he disappeared into the hazy gray horizon.

"I swear, if he gets Ma hurt, I'll rip him into ghost shreds," Kouga hissed. He turned and charged out of the office with Miroku and Sango at his heels.

"Inuyasha may be impatient, but from the time I've spent with him, I feel as though he's not a bad person," Miroku said. "I don't understand why, but he seems familiar to me."

"Well, if Inuyasha is off scouting, then that allows us to focus on weaponry," Sango shrugged. Kouga typed into his phone and shouted a few orders at the workers who had crowded around Rin's office, wondering if everything was alright. Kouga insisted that some kids had thrown some rocks through the window and for no one to go inside Rin's office. He then told everyone to get back to work while he went to investigate a lead. That seemed to snap everyone into action as they dove right into their work. Only one curious person asked if Rin was alright. Kouga assured the woman with long auburn hair and crystal blue eyes that Rin was fine and had already left the building before the kids wrecked her window. Miroku didn't know if the woman bought the lie or not.

The trio hurried over to the weapon shop, taking a taxi to speed up their journey. Miroku sat in the back next to Sango and filled Kouga in on who Naraku was and what they were trying to do. As the ghost finished up, the weapons shop came into view. Miroku had seen more of this shop in the past twenty four hours than he had in the past years he'd been a ghost. The place was situated on the corner of a four way stop on a busy street, guaranteeing some foot traffic from inquisitive passerby's. The group got out and Sango paid the driver. Kouga threw open the weapon shop's door. The bells used to indicate an entering customer flew off the door and landed right on top of the service desk. The man who had been listening to music via over-the-ear headphones, gazing off into the distance, let his sight lazily crawl over to Kouga. One red eyebrow arched.

"Hey, Bud. How's it biting?" Shippo asked, sarcasm dripping from each word. He wore a blue hoodie with anime characters fighting printed on the front. Shippo's glossy auburn hair had grown, and the shopkeep hastily twisted it into a low bun. There was some scruff on his chin and jawline that appeared to be well groomed despite his lack of enthusiasm with clothing and hair. Shippo drummed his fingers on the glass table, waiting for Kouga to answer.

"No time for banter. Kagome sent us. We need weapons," Kouga said, his tone urgent. He slapped his hands on the table, making the bells jump and jingle. Sango stood next to Kouga, still holding the prayer beads as if they were a lifeline. Shippo looked from Kouga to Sango, clearly connecting the dots. After all, Sango had been there just yesterday to help Kagome get her newly repaired bow.

"Weapon weapons, or those type of weapons," Shippo asked. He pulled off his headphones and let them rest around his neck. When neither of them answered, Shippo nodded in understanding. "Ah. Okay. Let's see what I have to spare." The shopkeep removed a key from his jeans pocket and unlocked the display case. Before he could do anything else, the lights went completely out. Miroku blinked and was immediately acclimated to the dark. That was one ghost perk. His companions were still briefly blinked by the dark and couldn't see that the entire block's lights had also gone out. This wouldn't have normally been a problem during a sunny afternoon, except it was not a sunny afternoon. The hazy sun had vanished underneath black rain clouds. Wind surged through the streets, picking up leaves and some litter. The air smelled of rain and the beginnings of a typhoon.

**_Something. Was. Watching. Them._ **

**_Something. Right. Behind. Them._ **

Miroku shuddered although he could not feel the cold, and turned. A little girl with white hair and a white dress leered at them from a corner. Her eyes and mouth were sewn shut with ebony thread, and her dress was stained with old blood. The girl's tiny fingers pawed at her mouth, and it was with this gesture that Miroku noticed her finger nails had been yanked off, leaving swollen beds of skin.

"Damn. What in the seven Hells is that?" Miroku murmured. The little girl sniffed, the sound too loud in the quiet shop. It felt like she was trying to smell them out.

"You should know. You're the ghost," Kouga insisted.

"If you haven't already noticed, I am not very good at being a ghost." Miroku backed away from the child and then realized, "Wait, you can see her?"

"Unfortunately," Kouga growled.

"I don't know what the Hell is going on. What is that girl?" Shippo hissed. He moved around the table to stand with Kouga. "Why can we see her? That's not how this goes."

"My best guess is that a ghost possessed this girl and has completely taken over her body. There's nothing left of the host body's life force." Miroku gulped and glanced at Sango. This could be her fate if she wasn't careful, even if Kohaku held back.

"So, how can we fight her? We can't just kill a kid," Kouga asked. "Oh, right. You can't hear Miroku," Kouga frowned. "He says she's possessed, her host is dead, and she wants to kills us."

"She hasn't done anything yet. Maybe she's a good ghost?" Shippo asked. Kouga, Sango, and the unseen by Shippo Miroku stared at the shop keep. "A good kid-possessing-ghost-that-most-likely-took-the-life-of-her-host?"

The possessed girl launched herself at Shippo. She latched her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist. Her head turned completely around, revealing a gaping hole on the back of the girl's head. There were five rows of tiny teeth all around the hole like that of a leech's mouth. Three whiplike red tongues lashed out of the hole, slashing at Shippo's face.

"Shit!" Shippo let go of his glamour. His fingers elongated, the nails sharpened to lethal claws. A tawny tail sprouted and swished from his lower back. Shippo yelled, showing long white fangs, and grabbed at the child. His hands went right through her. "What?!"

"I'll attempt to distract her. Kouga, get her off Shippo!" Miroku ran over to the struggling shopkeep. Now that he said he'd do something, he wasn't sure of what. If he could just be a proper ghost. What made him go into ghost mode when he first encountered Naraku in the bakery? Was it the feeling of oblivion? His soul being wiped clean? He could feel the same presence within the possessed girl. Did that mean she was part of Naraku, or was that in all ghosts? He'd figure that out later. Miroku took that same sliver of fear, letting it seethe within his belly, and pushed his fear out of his mouth. A utterly terrifying wail careened around the shop, making the items in their display cases shake and clatter to the ground. The human and demon occupants of the shop ground their teeth, the ghostly note hitting a nerve.

The girl paused in her assault on Shippo. Kouga jumped, letting his own glamour melt off. Very much like Shippo, he too sported a tail, claws, and fangs. He used those claws in his attempt to pry the crazed girl off of the shopkeep only for his hands to also go right through her. Kouga crashed right into Shippo and they both tumbled into a standing case displaying katanas. The case tipped and smashed against another, which in turn broke through the service table display case. Glass and scratched weapons lay like scattered litter in a path of destruction.

"The shop! My dad's going to kill me!" Shippo moaned from under Kouga. "Wait, where did the girl go?"

The girl in white had Miroku. Her twisted head with the three tongues wrapped around Mirkou's throat, silencing the ghastly wail he had tapped into. He couldn't move. She was doing something to paralyze him. The tongues lifted Miroku up into the air with the full intention of stuffing him into the girl's open, leech maw. This was completely not the way he wanted to permanently leave this world. He was supposed to die in the arms of a pretty woman, dammit!

Sango reached into the glass and debris from the service display case and pulled out a scythe, its metal shiny, sharp, and lethal. She sauntered over to the possessed girl, raising the scythe with both hands so tightly that her nails dug into its leather grip. Another pair of ghostly child's hands emerged from Sango's, lending his strength into delivering the fatal blow. Sango let the scythe fall before the possessed girl could defend herself. The blade passed through her middle, cutting her in two. The girl's pieces fell, releasing Miroku. He quickly brushed away the red tongues and stood back from the slaughter. The companions watched as the girl's pieces shuddered and then turned to dust.

"Sango, my dear. Remind me to marry you in another life," Miroku panted as he stared at the tongues curling into dead crisps and also turning to dust.

"Ha! You wish." Sango let the scythe rest on her shoulder and smiled.

**50 Years Ago**

Jaken mopped the sheet of gleaming sweat from his brow with the handkerchief Master Sesshoumaru had gifted him with ten years ago. Jaken had his name embroidered into the deep green cloth in sparkling golden thread. Now, the man was afraid his anxiousness would completely soak the poor keepsake until it was ruined.

So much had happened in just one day. One single day. Was it only yesterday that Jaken was reprimanding Rin to, for heavens sake, stop placing dried flowers on Master Sesshoumaru's desk? And how many more times must he cover the girl up after she tired herself out, sleeping on the main hallway's floor? But now? He would do whatever Rin wanted if it meant he could return to that carefree time. Anything at all.

Jaken wiped his face again and peered down at his handkerchief. Specks of dried blood collected at the cloth's corners. Some of that blood was new. Jaken shuddered, took a deep steadying breath, and opened the door to Akatsuki Mansion. He immediately felt as though he willingly doused himself with ice water. Teeth chattering, he traversed through hallways, using his sense of smell to lead him to where he knew the bodies rested.

The place was in utter despair! All of the servants were murdered, man, woman, and child. Some of their throats were sliced from ear to ear, leaving smiling second mouths to sneer at Jaken. One's head was completely severed, and Jaken accidentally kicked the unattached head. The head rolled away a meaty rhythm. Blood spray lined the ornate wooden walls. Hair and brain matter had been flung in haphazard directions like morbid decorations. A total and complete waste, but he had to plug on.

Inuyasha, Master Sesshoumaru's half brother, was dead on the floor. His eyes had glossed over with death, and a pool of black blood served as the half demon's deathbed. Next to his body was the corpse of his fiancée, Kikyo. As in her life, Jaken did not spare time over the woman in death. The couple had been dead for at least a few hours, maybe more. They stank of stagnated blood and the aroma of decaying flesh. Jaken covered his nose with his handkerchief. One drawback of pretending to look human was the nose that came with it.

"But where is Master Sesshoumaru?" Jaken asked himself. He moved all about the mansion, searching in closets, through the kitchen, and in the courtyard. Nothing. There was no trace of Sesshoumaru amid all the mess. He was told he would find his master here and to retrieve the body before the police were called, and he was under good faith to believe his source. But what now?

Jaken could no longer handle the utter reek. Although the fall weather had culled most of the bugs and wildlife, some still persevered. Beetles and flies crawled over to the bodies, preparing a feast to fill their bellies for a long time to come. It was time to leave before Jaken himself became a guest to this feast. He exited the mansion, deciding to depart from a different direction than when he first arrived. He couldn't afford to be noticed, and that meant trudging through overgrown, sharp grass and frigid mud. Jaken's polished shoes would have to be thrown away. Said polished right shoe hit something solid hidden amongst the overgrowth. Something solid _and_ soft. Jaken bent down, squinting to make sense of the form blocking his path through the muddy pre-dawn light.

There was a body! Could this be, heaven forbid, Master Sesshoumaru? Jaken got closer, almost gagging from the stench as it directly hit the roof of his mouth. He immediately understood that this corpse was not his master but a simple human caught in a massacre. Jaken kicked the body over, revealing a man who most likely died from blood loss, and he wondered how this dead man got so far away from the mansion. The corpse no longer had an arm, after all.

~~**Let's Split Up** ~~


End file.
